Rise of an Immortal
by The Jade Knight
Summary: On Azerath a new prophecy is made, one called Neoneisa will soon rise to defeat Trigon. On Earth, Beastboy is dying from the virus that gave him his powers and a follower of Trigon wants to kill Raven. Can Beastboy and Raven still find love? [BBRae]
1. Grip of the Sickness

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_AN: Alright This is Version 3 of this story... so if you have read some of it before you're going to have to start over. Yes there are a lot of elements that are the same but if you just jump to the part you were at last time you'll be lost... K? Sweet._

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans_

_Onto the Show... Curtain up!_

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**Rise of an Immortal**

By Eternal Loss

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**Chapter 1: Grip of the Sickness**

-

_At the end of the sixth age; _

_On a distant planet, named Earth by its inhabitants._

_A mortal, with the help of the Ancient Gods;_

_Shall rise from the shackles of mortality._

_-_

_This new being of immortality and Godship, _

_Will become know to all as Neoneisa; _

_The birthing of Neoneisa will begin with a murder,_

_The murder of the one closest to Neoneisa by Trigon the Terrible._

_-_

_In the bloodlust and rage that will follow, Neoneisa will kill Trigon;_

_Thus ending the reign of Trigon the Terrible, _

_Freeing all of the worlds from the hell of the living_

_And so will begin the ruling of Neoneisa the Light_

_-_

It is a bright and cheerful day outside, but inside the council chamber tension is high. Three days before a new prophecy was foretold. It wasn't the fact that a new prophecy came to light that caused such stress. Prophecies were an everyday thing on Azerath. There was always a new king or great Tyrant to watch out for. The thing was that they were not usually supposed to come about for several hundred if not thousands of years. But this new prophecy was going to become a reality within two weeks.

The council chamber was a large room with high ceiling and large windows. On the walls between the shafts of sunlight there hung beautiful tapestries telling ancient prophecies and battles long forgotten. A large round table constructed of white marble was in the center of the room, and around it three figures argued.

"It's obviously a fake." Said Herium, the current head of the council and therefore head of all of Azerath. He was also the youngest man to ever take the seat. At thirty two years of age, by the earth calendar of course. He only had a few wisps of gray in his hair. But his hard steel colored eyes could still strike fear into any who angered him.

"It is no secret that we want the Terrible one dead. But never in the history of the universe has _any _prophecy been made this close to its apex. It could very well be a ploy by the Terrible one to get us near the cursed child so she can strike; destroying all of Azerath, the Terrible one's most formidable foe."

But before he could go any further, Gwena, one of the oldest council members ever stood up and raised her hand to silence Herium. When he saw this Herium sneered. He disapproved greatly of Gwena; she had been the strongest voice against him when he had proposed throwing the demon child out of Azerath. Old, bend over and very wrinkled, her looks showed nothing of her iron determination. "But the girl is not her father's heir, she is against him. She banished him to a hell dimension when he tried to enslave this universe two years ago. Can you say you did the same thing? She is clearly our greatest weapon _against _the Terrible One."

"Where is your proof that she is not his loyal heir?"

"Where is your proof that she is?!"

"I do not need proof, it is the truth. She is a Demon spawn and it is in her nature to destroy."

"A person is not defined by their heritage!"

"Were not talking about someone whose mother grew up on the streets. Her father was _Trigon the Terrible_, the demon god who has destroyed entire universes. She cannot be anything but the next Hell spawn! Have you forgotten the mayhem she caused when she fled here?"

"Well she wouldn't have had to flee if you hadn't been treating her like an animal. She was a little girl, she should have been outside playing in the sunlight with _friends. _Instead you imprisoned her in this building so that if she ever got out of hand you would have the power at hand to kill her."

"She was a danger to this city! I had the freedom and livelihood of the people at heart!"

"_So what's she?_ _Isn't she a person? Doesn't she deserve the same freedoms?"_

_"Silence!" _Doomed Dairnis, the third and final council member. Having startled the other two into silence he stood to stand shoulder to shoulder with his two counter parts. He was a very tall man, but he never looked down on anyone. With skin as black as midnight he spoke in a voice that was almost unnaturally low. "Please, we must consider all of the possibilities, and that means planning for the possibility that she is conspiring to destroy Azerath." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gwena about to start yelling again.

"We must also plan for the possibility that Rachael Roth is on our side and that she will become the great power spoken of in the prophecy. She could very well bring about the end of Trigon the Terrible. Or she could condemn us all. But either way this issue cannot be resolved with a few minutes of heated arguing. We must all cool off and begin to work this problem throughly." He looked about him. Herium stared him down for a second before nodding and retaking his seat at the table, Gwena followed soon after and once they were all again seated they began to come up with the best course of action.

The council has always been like this since the birth of Azerath. Three individuals with three separate personalities, just like the elder Gods who created the universe. The Trinity of thought. Herium was appointed the head of the council. But he had no power the other two did not also have, it was just a title. He was the 'Head' of the Trinity. He thought things through with logic and never let useless things like feelings get in the way of his decision making. Gwena was the 'Heart' of the council. She decided with her heart and ignored logic, deeming it cold and useless. Dairnis was the equilibrium. He was the middle, he though with both his heart and head. Equal logic and feelings. These three represented the mind sets of the three Ancient Gods. Kiyento, Gia'nerium, and Salamin.

Kiyento was the Heart, Gia'nerium was the Head and Salamin was always right in the middle. When they came to a decision with how the universe should be and finally created it. It was a beautiful and varied place where everything was a compromise for everything else. It had trials and torment to test the soul. But it also had beauty and peace to heal wounds. It had horrors and wonders that stretch the mind and grip the heart. The universe contained the best and worst things imaginable, but it always had an opposite, and an equilibrium. And it was through this way of creation that the three ancient gods created the perfect universe from the nothingness of the void.

-

In a monastery deep in the mountains of the South American rain forest a secret sect of the followers of Skath met. They were locals, living in the villages near the temple. But they had never been privileged to such an important task. They had gotten a message from a dimension already ruled by their great leader. He was coming here! And they were to pave the way for him by summoning The Tormentor.

In a dusty room built of the blackest stone, buried deep in the darkest reaches of the temple. A hundred torches burn on the walls, casting dancing shadows upon the thirteen mages dressed in crimson robes, each with the mark of Skath tattooed onto their foreheads. These thirteen mages stood on the edge of a circle etched onto the ground, it's lines pulsating with power. Around it, written in languages old and terrible is a very powerful spell. They have been working on this task for nearly twelve hours now, non-stop. And it was finally starting to take its toll. Voices were weak and backs were bending under the fatigue. It is cold here and when the mages speak their breath is visible. Suddenly a new sound starts to fill the room. It is low, almost out of the range of human ears. But it slowly gets stronger.

He is coming.

The lead mage, a very bent over old man with a long white beard steps forward. He holds in his hand what seems to be a bolt of lightning, violently trying to escape his grasp. As the voices in the room rise a strange blue aura forms in the center of the circle. It is blurry, like an over exposed photograph. But ever so slowly as the chanting continues the blue light starts to solidify into an enormous orb. Then in a flurry of movement all thirteen of the mages yell the final word as the lead mage throws the bolt of lightning into the center of the blue orb. The moment the two magic's connected a blinding smoke exploded outward, and a deafening silence fills the room. No body moves, had the spell worked? Are they in the presence of the Tormentor?

The thirteen mages stood absolutely still, they were nervously awaiting the arrival of the Tormentor; the right hand of Trigon. The man that was to ready this realm for their masters return. Slowly, ever so slowly the smoke began to thin, and the mages could just make out a man standing in the middle of the room. As one the thirteen mages immediately fell to their knees and bowed to the Tormentor. He was terrifying, much worst then they had expected. He was nearly seven feet tall and clad in what appeared to be a loose fitting sleeveless robe. His arms were cabled with muscles and his face was a burnt bronze color. His hair was a jet black and hung wild around his face. He would have been able to pass for human with a change of cloths had it not been for his eyes which were a flaming red; they almost seemed to dance in their sockets.

"Lord Jaden, we are here to serve you." Said the lead mage as the rest did not move an inch. "What is your first order?"

For a moment Jaden the Tormentor looked over the thirteen mages. He could use them, but he would also need other things if he was to stop the prophecy. There had once been a much more powerful Monastery 'Loyal' to Trigon. But they had committed the ultimate sin, failure. Trigon would take in any who wanted to serve him, and they would bask in the worlds ruled by the Demon God. But if they strayed from Trigon's path or betrayed him, he would cause them to suffer for eternity. Three days before, Jaden acting on Trigon's behalf had to send three hundred souls to their eternities of hell. They had foretold the end of the Demon God, but that was fine. There was always some new hero that had been prophesied to destroy the Great one. But they were always taken care of, usually by Trigon himself, or Jaden.

But the monks of the First Monastery of Trigon had seen this prophecy far too late. Trigon was on his way to earth right now. Because he was a god, a being of unfathomable power. It would take him some time to get here, and while he was in this null-space between the dimensions he was unreachable. There was no way to warn him or turn him away. If Jaden didn't do anything Trigon would step out onto earth and be destroyed by this new god; Neoneisa. So after he had smote the monastery, he began his journey here. He had studied the Prophecy completely, and it could only be referring to the traitorous demon child of Trigon himself. So Jaden the Tormentor, the right hand of Trigon, the breaker of a thousand minds was here to send the demon child to her own eternal hell, where she could never fulfill her destiny.

-

Garfield Logan… Beastboy lay silently in his bed, dreaming. The clock on the headboard says it is five am. The sun should be rising anytime within the next hour. But right now the world is quiet, all is calm. Beastboy is slowly waking up, but he doesn't know it yet. He is in that little place just before you wake up. Where your dream seems like reality, where your reality just seems like a bad dream, where all the hopes of your heart can be fulfilled.

He slowly becomes aware that everything he had just seen was just an empty hope bouncing around in the expanse of his dreamworld The happy bliss he had only a moment ago been feeling vanishes as he raises his green hand to turn off the alarm clock. It was set to go off in fifteen minutes, but he couldn't get back to sleep now. Not with cruel reality creeping back to him. He knew he had many good thing going for him; namely Raven. But if his past was tribute, he was going to lose her. He didn't want to admit it. But there was a good chance that she would see the truth. Terra stabbing words echo in his mind as he stares hatefully down at the disgusting jade skin covering his hands.

This happened many times, sometimes every night for a week. Other times the dreams would stop for a whole month, and he will start to hope that he won't have to wake up again and realize that all of it had just been a dream. But it always returned, and it would always fool him. It would start off in the same way. He wouldn't be as he was now; he would be the way he had once been, years ago. Before the sickness had taken him. Back when his hair had been a golden blond and his eyes had been a sparking blue. Back before his parents had died. But most importantly, back before Terra had broken him.

He had trusted Terra, he had told her anything she had asked about without a seconds hesitation. He kept nothing from her. But that had been the biggest mistake of his life. He had trusted he and she had betrayed them all. Everything she had told him about her past had been a lie. He had gone back and looked in the Justice League data base. There had never been any family that had a daughter nearly killed in a landslide. There had never been any small town disaster; it had all been games to control him, to manipulate him into telling her everything. How to break into the Tower, how to override the security systems when they sneaked back in late at night. What the other Titans' weaknesses were so they could lie about where they had been. It had seemed to him that they were only having some innocent fun and the lies were only small white ones that could do no real harm. But she had set it all up. She had studied them all and used his tactics to lie and deceive the others so that they wouldn't know she had been working with Slade since they had first set eyes on her back in that canyon.

She knew more about him then pretty much anyone else on the planet, and she had used it all against him when she switched sides. At first he had though it was all some clever ploy, like Robin had done before. Pretending to be Slade's apprentice to get get close enough to Slade so they could take him down. So when the others had wanted do her in, he tried his best to convince them not to. To give her another chance to come back to them… to him. But it was a losing argument, there wasn't enough evidence to prove that she was really a double agent. So he had sneaked out of the tower and searched her out. He had walked right under Slade's nose. He had risked death a hundred times to break _into_ Slade's secret base, just to give her a chance to escape.

And what had she done? She had called the Slade bots, and watched gleefully as they beat him bloody. Even as he had laid there bleeding, he still believed she was doing this all for the better, for him. Then she started to speak. She used everything he had ever told her as a weapon. Every pain and anguish he had admitted to her, every old wound. She laughed as she picked and tore at them, until she had broken him.

He had escaped when she had her back turned. He ran back to the tower, a stabbing pain in his broken heart. He had never told the others about this failed rescue attempt. But it was right after it he agreed to step aside and let them take her down.

Now her memory was poison in his veins. It broke and shattered his confidence. He would give anything to have the ego he only pretended to. To be confident in himself. To forget Terra. But it was hard. And he was so confused. He never thought it was possible to both love a person with all your heart and hate them with your very soul at the same time. He wanted to believe he was over her and ready to start a new life with Raven. He believed his feelings for Raven were more powerful then he had ever had with Terra. But that blond traitor still managed to hurt him, to break his confidence and ruin his chances at happiness. She was a block of cold stone in a lonely cavern three miles below the surface, and she still managed to hurt him.

-

Cyborg was silently awoken by the internal alarm clock built into his circuitry. He opened his eyes and knew it was five fifteen like always. Sometimes he hated getting up this early. But he had to, he had made a promise. Lifting the blanket he slowly tried to de-tangle himself from Jinx without waking her. He couldn't help smiling, she looked very cute sleeping. Her pink hair a mess, her tiny mouth half open. God sometimes he hated getting up this early. She had been living in Titans Tower for two years now, ever since the day that Cyborg had gone and broken her out of the Hive. Sure she had her own room, but she never seemed to sleep there. But of course Cyborg wasn't complaining. He was just about to get off of the bed when a soft voice broke the silence.

"What time is it?" mumbled Jinx, her eyes still closed.

"To early, go back to sleep," Said Cyborg quietly leaning back over her to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"You going to do that thing with Beastboy?"

"Yeah, I'll be back later."

"Mmmkay." Then she rolled over and lay still again. Cyborg, now fully awake walked out of the room and down to the medical bay.

-

Beastboy was sitting semi-conscious in a chair when Cyborg walked into the medical bay. The smell of disinfectants was strong here and everything was painfully white. Cyborg thought about turning on the large over head lights, but decided against it. It was too damned early to have your eyes burnt out by blazingly bright lights. So by the soft glow of computer screens he found his way over to where Beastboy was sitting, slouched over, his back against the wall "Eh, wake up BB. Let's get this done."

But when Beastboy responded, instead of the usual sleepy 'out-of-it' voice he had this early, it was flat and low. "I'm not sleeping

Cyborg who had been booting up the medical computer beside the bed stopped. The room feel silent except for the hum of the computers.

"Did you have that dream again?" he asked. As Beastboy's best friend he knew about the dreams that haunted his nights now and again. After months of these early morning procedures Cyborg had his suspicions and had confronted Beastboy, who admitted it. Of course he didn't tell Cyborg everything, all he gave him were the broad strokes. But it didn't take long to for Cyborg to figure out that BB's appearance and Terra both played major rolls in his nightmares.

"Mark, there must…" Cyborg started, but almost immediately Beastboy cut him off.

"Can we just get this over with?"

For a second Cyborg looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't. "Sure buddy. No problem." Then he started to bring the DNA sequencer online. It was a very large boxy looking machine that usually sat in the corner, and as far as the rest of the team knew it had never been used. Beastboy had even managed to keep it a secret from Raven. He didn't want to worry her. But little did the others know it had been used daily for the past three years, with increasingly distressing results.

Twenty minutes later, Beastboy lay as still as he could as a blue bar slowly moved from the tips of his feet all the way up to his forehead. Scanning. A small beep signaled that the machine was done and that it would take a few moments before it came up with the results. Beastboy sat up on the table and waited like he did everyday for the past three years, waiting for Cyborg to tell him how much further he was to total cascading failure.

Cascading failure, it was a ready long scientific word Cyborg used in place of dying. Beastboy did have to admit it sounded nicer. Back when he was in Africa and had contracted the Sukia Virus, back when his parents had injected him with the DNA of dozens of animals that were know to become carriers for the virus rather than dying from it. Housing the virus within them, carrying it, they had saved his life. But years later he found out that the Sukia virus wasn't going to go out without a fight. It was mutating, still trying to kill him. So it was a constant battle between the virus, and his own animal enhanced immune system. And his immune system was failing. Once it reaches a certain point, the Sukia virus would start to take out his vital systems one by one, killing him in a matter of hours; a cascading effect.

Suddenly Cyborg spoke up, snapping Beastboy out of his train of thought. "Well, it seems like the immune boosters are starting to slow down the virus' progress. But it's not yet stopping, so I think it best if we raise the treatment a bit. Give the good guys a little more kick." He said trying to make light of a grim situation.

Beastboy just nodded gruffly, he knew what this meant. It was the same every morning, but he still hated it. Again he lay down on the table, only this time Cyborg restrained his wrists and ankles with the leather shackles attached to bed. Then Cyborg took a needle and filled it carefully from a small orange bottle he pulled from the small medical fridge against the wall. Inside there were dozens more vials of the same orange serum. Not to mention a hundred other glass and plastic containers holding countless other vaccines. So there were never any questions about why an orange vial disappearing daily.

"Ready?" asked Cyborg in a soft voice, Beastboy only gave a gruff nod. Then Cyborg held out a small wooden spool which Beastboy took in his mouth and bit down hard. It was used mainly so he wouldn't bite his tongue when he was injected with the booster.

"Okay, here it goes." Then with practiced speed Cyborg quickly found a vain in Beastboy's arm and emptied the needle into it. Then he stood up and held down Beastboy's shoulders. Silence filled the room and the ticking of the wall clock became deafening, until a moan escaped through the spool in Beastboy's mouth. Suddenly small tremors ran up and down his body, they were small at first, almost unnoticeable. But then he started to shake harder and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Muffled screams and groans emanated from his clamped jaw as the entire table began to shake. Then it all just stopped, and the sound of the clock once again asserted itself.

"Yah feeling okay?" asked Cyborg as he removed the wooden spool from Beastboy's mouth.

Beastboy cleared his throat and when he spoke his voice was strained and tired. "Feel like I was just hit by a train, followed by a car bomb chaser."

Cyborg smiled, if he was cracking jokes it was a good sign. He hated having to do this to his little friend every morning. But if Beastboy hadn't come to him three years ago, he would have most likely died a long time ago. At least this way they were making some progress in stopping this Virus. "Well, we both had best go back to bed and get some sleep."

"Yah." Mumbled Beastboy as the last restraining strap was removed. Once he got back to his bed he would sleep off the effects of the serum, and it would take an anvil dropping on his head to wake him up before noon. Everyone always thought he just liked to get his rest, or that he was lazy. But it was this damn orange gunk he had to take every morning before the others got up that would knock him out.

"Thanks Vic." He muttered sleepily as he got off the bed and walked to the doors.

Cyborg had his back to Beastboy while he shut down the sequencer. "You know you should fill in the others soon." Beastboy stopped with his hand still resting on the door handle. He was quiet for a long time; he had thought about this a lot lately. He felt a strong urge to tell the others, since he hadn't seen his adoptive parents in several months and his birth parents died when he was still little. The Titans were pretty much the only family he knew now. But like a family, there were some things he couldn't share with them.

"I couldn't worry them like that."

"They would want to know."

Beastboy sighed, "I know, but still…"

"They're smart, they'll figure it out. Jinx has only been here two years and she had been suspicious for the last six months. I eventually had to tell her it was a very personal matter, and that I had to keep it a secret. " Cyborg turned around in his computer chair and faced Beastboy's back.

"Thanks, but could you keep it a secret a little while longer. I will tell them soon, I promise."

"Of course," said Cyborg simply "You know I got your back."

With a nod, Beastboy opened the door, but he seemed to hesitate. He stood there for a second then he spoke again. "Have you found out anything new about... me?"

Cyborg sighed, "No, I've ran your blood through every test i can think of and i can't find a single answer. Genetically speaking you shouldn't be green or have any shape changing abilities. I searched through all of the possible variables, the virus, that booster your parents gave you... none of it could have possibly caused anything."

"Well something caused this." Beastboy said looking down at his hands.

"I know buddy, i know. It will just take a little longer. Okay? I'm sure there are a few more things i over looked, i promise you i will not stop searching for an answer. "

"Yeah, thanks." mumbled Beastboy. They were no further to finding out what changed him, and from the looks of how fast the virus was mutating. They might not have the time. Without another word her walked out of the door and down the hall back to his room.

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**Poll Number One: Who do you think is Neoneisa?**

**Poll Number Two: What do you think is up with Beastboy... where did his powers come from? What do you think of me exploring this?**

_All answers to polls will be read ... even if i get your answer six months down the line... so if you just got into this story... answer... I'll see it._

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_**Please Read & Review**_

**Eternal-Loss**


	2. Whisper of the Demon

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**Rise of an Immortal**

By Eternal Loss

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**Chapter 2: Whisper of the Demon**

**-**

Raven sat in her room, all lone; thinking. The room was silent except for the slow repetitive ticking of the clock sitting on her night stand and her own slow breathing. She was floating a few inches above her bed and if anyone walked in on her now they would think she was meditating. But she wasn't, she couldn't. Tomorrow was Beastboy's birthday and she wanted to get him something special. Usually she would just mumble a quick 'happy birthday' as he stuff his face with cake. But this year was different.

She had been wrestling with several confusing emotions that had been mostly dormant until just recently. It had started a long time ago, back before Terra showed up and forced her way into their home; first befriending and then betraying them all. Pretty much since the first time she saw him all those years ago when Starfire had practically destroyed the city trying to escape from her captors. She had always though he had looked cute with those pointed ears and goofy grin. And ten months ago now, on her last birthday he had made his move.

She was glad he did.

She had gone downstairs that day, to indulge the others. They always put so much effort into each others birthdays and they had already had everything set up, so she couldn't just say no. So she had made the trek downstairs, and walked into the suspiciously dark common room. and of course they all jumped out at her, plus Jinx of course. Cyborg had done what, according to Robin, was very stupid. He had broken her out of the Hive simply because she said she had fallen for him and didn't want to be a villain anymore. That was nearly three years ago now. It had taken her a long time to gain their trust... especially after all that business with Terra. But she had stuck it out and now even Raven had placed some amount of confidence in her. Well, actual Jinx had become somewhat of a close friend. Yes she had known Starfire longer, but she had a lot more in common with the pink haired sorceress.

Titans east was there also, so that meant Beastboy would have to compete for the most annoying. But, he had seemed to be distracted for the entire night. Like he was dwelling on something. Ha, Beastboy deep in though. It sounded like one of his lame jokes. But something was _definitely_ bothering him, she could feel it. She tried to approach him several times, he would answer her questions. But she never really was one for being comfortable with people watching. So she couldn't really open up and ask him what was wrong in the noisy and confetti filled common room.

But later that night she got her answer.

East had gone home and all of the other titans retreated to their own rooms, even Jinx who had been put up in the tower firstly for observation to she if she would revert to her criminal past, and then later because she become the newest Titan. It was getting late, she had meditated for a little while before deciding it was time to go to bed. She was just about to turn out her lamp when there came a knock at her door. With a sigh she got up. She didn't even need to ask who it was out there, she could still feel the confused mess that was Beastboy's mind. He may as well have been walking around with a foghorn on his back.

"What do you want? Can't you see its late."

"I know, but I wanted to give you your present." Said the small and _very_ nervous voice from the other side of the door. She knew he hadn't given her a present, she had tried to look bored when the brightly wrapped gifts were presented to her. But she couldn't help but notice none of them were from Beastboy. She just chalked it up to him being his usual forgetful self, even though she had been looking forward to it. He had an uncanny ability to get her things she actually liked. God she could almost taste his fear, what the hell could he be so afraid of. Sure she threw him around when he annoyed her, but he had mostly left her alone today. So without another word she hit the little button that opened the sliding door.

The second his emerald green eyes came into view he cracked that same goofy grin. He always looked so innocent and cute when he did that. It usually meant he knew he had done something wrong.

"Uh. I g-g-got you this..." he mumbled and seemed to fight with his arm to raise a lumpy present wrapped in the comics of todays paper. "Sorry about the wrapping job. Starfire kinda went crazy with the real wrapping paper and this was all that was left. So i thought it would be okay."

He was shuddering and speaking very fast causing Raven to frown, why _was_ he so scared? But the weight of the parcel in her hands called her. What did the little green bean get her this year. She was a little surprised that she was excited. Normally she despised her birthdays, they were just another reason to be annoyed by people making a big fuss over her. But the last few years she had been looking forward to Beastboy's presents. Last year it had been a crystal aroma dish.

After reading the box she found out that you lit a candle under the glass dish that was supported by a metal frame, and depending on the which little wax cube you put in you would get an array of calming scents, anything from lavender to chamomile. Right now it was cooling on her dresser having been lit while she had been meditating. Her hands shook a little with anticipation as she pulled back the paper. When the last piece fell away she held back a gasp when she saw what it was.

"Its a rare blue African Tiger Lily." explained Beastboy.

In her hands Raven held the most stunning little plant she had every seen. It was in its own little clay pot, the dark green moss damp from recent watering. It had a strong little stem for such a tiny flower. It looked like it might one day become a vine. But right now it was just a single flower, tiny and delicate. It was about the size of an quail egg, with thin almost see through petals coloured an electric blue with black vertical stripes.

"Where did you get this?" she asked after she composed herself. She wasn't really a plant person, but this little flower felt right to her.

"Uh... well, you see it only grows in one place in Africa... "

This time she couldn't stop a single eyebrow from raising. "You went all the way to Africa to get me a present."

This time Beastboy took a long time to answer. It was like he was having a mental battle with himself. Raven didn't like to see him like this. He was terrified of something and he might have came to her for help. So since he was obviously having trouble speaking she decided to help him along. Her empathic abilities were strong, what she used to feel emotions was only a fraction of her full potential. If she really opened up she could hear thoughts. She usually didn't focus on anyone, a personal space issue. It wasn't right to ask them to stay out of her personal space when she invaded theirs. But this was an emergency. Exceptions must be made. So she slowly opened up her mind, directed completely at Beastboy, and before long she started to get something. It was garbled at first, but then it started to get clearer.

(Stupid... just say it... Aqualad... **IDIOT!**... looking...) Raven was startled by how much chaos was in his head. Something was really bothering him. So she reached out to him just a little more.

(C'mon Mark, just say something. She's waiting you idiot! Say it... okay start with something simple. Just say 'because you are worth it.' **bloody hell** does that sound as pathetic as i think it does. No, you planned this remember? Remember how she looked at that _**damned fish-cicle Aqualad**__ six months ago?_, remember what he said at the punch table, he's gong to make his move. This is you last chance! If you don't do it now you will lose her forever... C**ome on man you've stalled for over a year! If you don't move now she'll**...she'll...she ...s-s-she...she deserves better... your a mutant, a green _freak_...she deserves a real man. Just leave the flower and go. Don't make it harder them it has to be... she's lost... your _worthless_...)

"I'm sorry Rae, I've gotta go." said Beastboy timidly as his ears drooped. "I won't bother you again." Then he turned to leave. But Raven was still numb from what she had just heard.

Did he really come here because he liked her? She knew she always felt better when he was around. Just his voice could bring her back from a deep depression or a towering rage. Was that love. Was it love when she got that electric shock whenever he would brush up against her? When she would get that fluttery feeling in her stomach when he talked to her? Was it? Suddenly she realized she wanted to find out, and he was just about to turn the corner.

"Was I really worth the trip to Africa?" she called out. Beastboy froze just as he was about to round the corner. For a long moment he stayed silent, and when he finally answered his voice had a tone like he wasn't sure he had heard the question.

"Yes, I would fly around the world to get you anything... just to see you smile one more time."

She was surprised, that was awfully... poetic to be coming from him. "Do you really... have feelings for me?" she asked tentatively. At this he turned around and looked her in the eyes

"Yes." he barely whispered. A smile slowly crept its way onto Raven's face. She tried to fight it off, but she couldn't. And to her great surprise nothing broke. Then before she knew what was happening she felt him walking toward her ever so slowly, like an animal about to run at the slightest scent of danger. She could no longer feel the fear coming from him, instead she felt confusion. She didn't need to listen to his thoughts to know what he was confounded about. Suddenly_ she _was the fearful one.

"I-I'm an empath, you know that. But... b-but what you don't know is that i can hear thoughts if i really try... please don't hate me for spying on what you were thinking about. I was..." she searched for the word. "Concerned because you felt so afraid." She realized what she had done was very rash and extremely stupid. Why did she have to read him. If she had just kept to herself he might have come back to her later. But now... it was a major invasion of privacy to look into someone's mind.

"You heard what I was thinking?" asked Beastboy frowning. Raven just nodded as her eyes fell. She might have just ruined the best thing to ever happen to her... before it had even started.

"Okay..." Beastboy said slowly "So... do you like the flower?"

Raven just stared at him for a second. Did he really just say that? She had looked inside his head, invaded his privacy and he was still wondering if she liked the flower? He was a piece of work. But then he smiled at her again and she felt like she melted with relief. "

Your such a meat head." She said, the ghost of a smile forming on her face.

"Hey, I'm a vegetarian remember. Its carrot head." Raven couldn't have felt better. If he was back to cracking his stupid jokes, then...

"Am I forgiven for invading you mind?"

"Meh, its a little odd. But I always suspected you might be able to do something like that."

"Really?" she asked

"Yup. Any questions about my inner reaches?" He asked, a smug grin plastered on his face.

Raven let out something resembling a faint laugh which raised Beastboy's ears as high as they would go. "Actually I do have a question _oh deep one_. Why did you call yourself Mark?"

"Ahhh, yeah. That." Said Beastboy, timidly scratching the back of his head. "Well you know my first name is Garfield, personally I hate it... think anyone would. So I have kinda decided to use my middle name. Its not really that uncommon ya' know."

"Yeah yeah... Alright _Mark_." said Raven smirking, then she stopped. What was she going to do now. She was new at this whole opening up to a guy thing. She never really had any friends on Azerath to talk about boys to, and her mother had been to busy trying to protect her to even give her a proper _'Talk', _let alone advice on how to deal with a guy. But then she got a simple idea.

"We obviously have some things to talk about. So let's go," She said as she closed and locked her door behind her.

"Where?" asked Beastboy, as eager as a puppy

"To the 'Half a Cup,' its a coffee shop in the city that's open until four in the morning."

"So... its like a date?"

Raven considered him for a minute. Then with a small grin led the way down the hallway. "Maybe."

-

Looking over her shoulder she saw her little Tiger lily. Only it wasn't so little anymore. It had grown, quite a lot. And like she had suspected it had become a flowery vine. It now framed her entire window, first going up one side and down the other. And all along it dozens of the small blue flowers glittered in the moonlight. She had gone on many dates with BB since that first night, and her feelings for him increased with every meeting. Suddenly she though of the perfect gift. It was something small, but it had a strong symbolic meaning so it would be able to say more then she ever could.

With deliberate movements she walked over to her book case and grabbed a stone bowl and three black candles. Then she made her way around the room gathering the ingredients she needed. It only took her a few minutes to find all of the things she needed. Finally she sat down in the middle of her room, and placed the bowl in front of her. Then she positioned the candles at equal intervals around the edge. That done, she lit the wicks with a quick wave of her hand and started to put the ingredients into the bowl one by one.

She probably knew more about him then anyone. It had taken her a while but she eventually got him to tell her about his past. She was surprised to hear it was pretty much as bad as her own. It seemed that they had one more thing in common. She guessed the main reason she felt so comfortable around him was because he was as different as she was, an outsider. He knew what it was like to be sneered at and feared for something you had no control over. To be seen as less then human simply because of their beginnings . She had been born of a Demon God and he had been transformed by animal DNA. Two separate causes with the same effect. They were both outcasts from the human race.

Some brilliant psychiatrist had once stated that when a person pulled within their own mind, trying to hide from the world. They did it in one of two ways. The first way stated that they would use humor as a shield and hide the pain with a smile. They would try desperately to gain acceptance from the people around them by appearing to not be bothered by the way they looked or how people treated them. They would joke and try to get people to laugh with them just so they would pay them some sort of attention. Humans were so delicate. A person would actually die if they were completely devoid of human contact.

She had seen through this guise almost right away, after all she was an empath. She could feel out emotions as easily as anyone else could read a facial expression. At first she had though her perception of him had been completely false. Because as he joked and laughed and smile, all she felt from him was depression and pain. She could feel how desperately he wanted some sort of acceptance. And it was in that moment she realized he was trying to hide from the world like she was, and she felt the first connection with him.

She had chosen instead of humor the second option; hiding behind mystery and secrets while keeping everyone at a distance. While she had been back on Azerath she had been attacked whenever she was alone. People would try and hurt her because she was the daughter of Trigon. But in accordance with her mothers wishes she did not fight back. Instead she hid in her room at all times and hardly went out. There were some days... hell there were some_ weeks _where she never even saw the sun. The council had deemed her unsafe and forbade her from ever leaving the city. Their reasoning was that at least _there _they could keep a watchful eye on her. Ever vigilant for any signs of her demon heritage taking over. So she took the only escapes she had left; into books. In those she could pretend she was someone else. She remembered that when she was young she used to pretend she was a beautiful princess who was saved by a knight in shining armor. But that was back when she was young. Back before she had lost control and what the council had always feared had come true. Her demon side had broken through, and she had lashed out at everyone. Violently, gruesome and all over the place.

It had happened one day when she had been alone in the enormous council building. It was the idea that if she was near the council and she lost control. They would have enough of a warning and could bring in a response team of Combat Magicians to finish her fast. But they were wrong.

She had never had any friends before, and she had always though it was because of her past. She had no idea that to be seen in close contact with the 'Demon Child" was forbidden by law. But then one girl, Sonya; a daughter of one of the cooking staff at the Council building, had wandered away and eventually found Raven in the small reading room off of the library that she was usually locked into during the day. Her mother bargained this for her after seeing how the books seemed to bring her some happiness.

So many things went wrong that day. The two Warlocks that had been assigned to guard her had fallen asleep on couches in the library. They were not for her protection, oh no. They had stood by and laughed countless times as she had been beaten bloody. They had been assigned there only to make sure she didn't hurt anyone else. But they were young and ignorant, and she had never made any trouble in her eleven years. So the warriors assigned to keep her under control had grown lax in their boredom. Allowing the unthinkable to happen. On top of that the door that was supposed to have locked her in had been left open, and poor little Sonya was ever so curious.

Sonya must not have know who Raven was because she wasn't afraid of her like everyone else was. She just frowned and asked sweetly what Raven was doing all alone in a small dark room. It took Raven a long time to answer. She had never been talked to like a person by anyone other then her mother. But eventually she had told the girl her name was Raven. It was a name only her mother used. Once she had asked her mother what it meant and Ariella had said that a raven was a small black bird that existed back on earth, back where she had been born. She had told Raven many wonderful tales of earth but she had never heard of this 'raven' bird. So her mother explained that a raven was a bird that was usually considered bad luck and evil, and it was almost always considered a bad omen. Some people even believed that the raven was a sign of immanent death. But it was wasn't evil, just misunderstood. Just like she was. If only she had told Sonya her real name. It would have been so simple to say 'I am Rachael Roth' and watch the little red head get scared and run off. But Raven didn't want the curious little girl to run.

They had talked for hours, apparently Sonya also liked to read. They talked about their favorite books and the one they would like to read. Before long Raven was feeling happy. For the first time ever someone other then her mother was talking to her like she was just another girl, not a demon spawn. A short while later Sonya had thrown open the curtains saying how dark it was and that if someone read in bad light they would go blind. and then something miraculous happened. For the first time in years, Raven smiled. It wasn't a really funny joke, but she smiled. And it felt good. But she should have seen that as a omen of the horror to come, her entire life up until that point proved that if she obtained happiness of any kind. Pain and anguish were right behind.

Maybe someone on the street two stories below had seen Sonya in front of the window with Raven. Or maybe the Captain of the Guard had just come to check in on the demon child for safety's sake. But either way barely a minute later the huge hairy man in a dark purple, almost black combat robe strode through the door. Raven remembered the look on his face perfectly. First it was the usual sour look most people had when they saw her. Like someone had just shoved week old roadkill under his nose. Then his eyes fell on Sonya, and rage filled his hard features. He grabbed the little redhead roughly around the throat cutting off her airway, and literally_ threw_ her out of the room. Raven heard her cry out as her tiny body hit the book stack outside the room.

Raven remembered she screamed at him not to hurt Sonya. And the moment she used the girls name she knew it was a mistake. Fire burned in the Captain eyes as he grabbed Raven by the back of her robes and dragged her from the room. He stopped only to once again pick up the still sputtering Sonya by the throat again and began to drag her along. By now Raven had tears in her eyes as she begged the Capitan to let Sonya go. She could her the poor girl chocking as she fought to pull air into her lungs past the huge hand that crushed her wind pipe. But he wouldn't listen. He just kept on walking, his boots banging on the floor alerting everyone to their presents.

People started to stream out of rooms trying to see where all the noise was coming from, and then they saw the trio coming at them. Some asked what was going on, others who had pieces together what was happening begged the Captain to let little Sonya go. They said they had known her for years, having worked with her mother. They said she was just a curious girl and she didn't know what she had done. Some even spat on Raven and yelled that she had hoodwinked the little girl into this. But still poor Raven didn't know what was happening, or what was coming.

A few seconds later they were in the courtyard outside the large sprawling building. All around them people had started to gather, mostly they were just wondering what was going on. Sonya was still choking and clawing at the large hand around her throat as the Captain stomped up the wooden steps up onto the platform. Once there he ordered one of the guard that had followed him out to clamp iron shackles around Sonya's wrists. For a second the young guard seemed conflicted. But after a hard stare from the Captain he ran to get the restraints. Raven was then thrown to the ground as two Combat Magicians positioned themselves on either side of her, ready for anything... or so they though.

Two women suddenly burst through the main doors of the Council building and began to battle their way though the crowd. The first woman to break through the wall of bodies and get the first look at what was about to transpire was Raven's own mother. By now Sonya was wailing as purple bruises formed on her neck, calling out for her mother in her tiny frightened voice. And thats when the second woman entered the courtyard. She had flaming red hair just like Sonya, Raven realized this must be her mother. The red headed woman rushed forward and threw herself at the ring of guards that had take up positions around the platform. She pushed forward trying to get to her daughter as the guards did their best to hold her back.

"Long has contact with the Demon Daughter been forbidden. But it appears it has been too long since the last time there was a demonstration of the consequences for breaking this law." yelled the Captain easily making his voice heard over the voices of the citizens. "Age and ignorance do not exclude you from the consequences of your actions. On this day I shall carry out the immediate punishment. Let all who are here now bare witness!"

"No!" screamed Sonya's mother. "She didn't know who the Demon was. Its not her fault. She was tricked!"

"Do not slay the youngling for a crime she knew not of!" yelled Ariella "Show mercy!" But her last words were downed out by the chanting of the crowed.

_'Punish her, punish her, punish her!'_

Then the young guard that had been sent to get the shackles returned, after a nod from the Captain he clamped the irons onto the wrists of the weeping girl. Raven who had been confused by the whole situation still did not understand what was happening. But she did know that she didn't want to see her new friend in chains. So she tried to fight back, tried to plead with the Captain to release Sonya.

"Restrain the Demon!" said the Captain, and the two Combat Magicians formed a shield barrier around Raven. Although she could hear what was happening outside the pink tinged bubble, her voice would not penetrate her transparent prison. She was completely powerless as she watched. She could still hear her own mother trying desperately to reason with the Captain. But her words were as meaningless as the Red haired womans'. He just ignored everything except for the weeping form before him.

"Let everyone know what happens to those that chose to betray their people and side with the Demon Child." Near silence filled the court yard as everyone held their breath, knowing what was coming. Except of course for Ariella and Sonya's mother. They were both still trying to fight their way to the platform, pleading and begging for Sonya's release the whole time. But they were also held back by several robed guards.

Terrifying magics began to fill the air as the Captain chanted an old mantra. _"Jerum koona sentar... jerum koona sentar... jerum koona sentar" _His eyes took on the sheen of the moon on a dead night as powerful crimson energy began to gather around his body. He raised a single hand and the energy that had been swirling around him started to collect in his palm, taking the form of an ax. This drew many reactions; firstly Ariella and Sonya's mother found the inhuman strength needed to press past the ring of guards. And secondly Raven finally figured out what was happening. She didn't understand why it was happening, but she knew her new friend was in danger. So she called upon the magics that slept inside of her.

She had never been trained in the ways of controlling this power, it was deemed to dangerous. So all she could do was release the power. But she was the daughter of a Demon God whether she followed in his footstep or not. So every time the black energy pulsated from her tiny body and struck the barrier around her, it got stronger and more accurate. Within a matter of seconds the two_ veteran_ Combat Magicians were sweating from the effort of trying to keep her contained. But she was gaining power at to slow of a pace. Raven watched with tear filled eyes the Ax finished forming in the Captains hands. She struck out again with a shriek, but the bubblearound her only cracked. It did not break.

_"Witness the punishment for plotting with the Demon daughter to overthrow the council of Azerath!"_bellowed the Captain, then with gargantuan effort he swung the ax down with every ounce of strength he possessed. Sonya's mother screamed. And then came the sickening thwack of the ax against the wooden platform. The red headed woman collapsed into Ariella's arms crying at the injustice of the universe. The crowed cheered at the downfall of the _traitor_. And the magic's Raven was conjuring in an attempt to break the barrier stopped. But the only two people to notice this were the Combat Magicians that had only moments ago feared that the shield was about to break.

One of the Combat Magicians looked into the sphere to make sure that Raven was still in there, because a thick black smoke had filled the space. Presumably from all of the failed attempts at escape. But he could have sworn he saw something moving in there. Only... it didn't look all that human. Then so suddenly it made him jump back, four blood red eyes peered out of the smoke at him.

"Mother of god." He whispered right before the enormous black tentacle tore through the shield as though it wasn't even there and grabbed him. He screamed as the appendage threw him clear across the court yard and into the immovable council building. The second Magician followed closely behind, his destroyed body joining his partners. Now with no one to maintain the barrier it fell. The black smoke, so thick nothing could be seen except for the four crimson eyes, began to grow. _Now_ everyone started to notice it. But it wasn't until a hundred tentacles of dark energy lashed out and started to throw the remaining guards around like toys did the panic begin. People ran screaming in an attempt to get away from the murderous Demi-Goddess. Everyone except for Ariella, who ran at it.

"Rachael! Calm down, you don't want to do this. Please my little Raven calm down!"

"Its no use witch!" sneered the Captain "Your Demon Spawn has finally shown its true colours as the next Tyrant." Ariella sensing that he planned to stop her daughter _permanently_ tried to fight him. But she was over powered in an instant and fell to the ground unconscious. Seeing her mother thrown to the ground increased Raven's rage, and thus her power ten-fold. And for the first time in her new form she emerged from the smoke, and roared.

She was nearly thirty feet tall with a fang maw dripping with blood. Her four crimson eyes filled with bloodlust and rage. Her robes had been altered as well. Instead of fabric, they seemed to now be made of human skin. Down each of her sides in a hundred places black energy tentacles unfurled, wanting to strangle the life from the Captain. Its skin was as black as midnight and its hair was alive and whithering. This new creature of nightmares sent the rest of the brave and stupid alike running screaming the other way. Only the Captain stood strong. His crimson ax still held at the ready... still smeared with Sonya's blood.

The Nightmare that had once been a little eleven year old girl named Rachael roared a second completely inhuman roar. And the Captain still just stood his ground, staring uncaring at the mountain of death before him. Then as if the world had been put into fast forward Nightmare surged forward with unnatural speed for a creature of that size. It dropped low, almost skimming the ground as it cut a path directly for the Captain. And the Captain raised his ax, preparing to drive it into Nightmare's skull. But instead he felt the invisible arms, containing the full force of Nightmare's magic reach out to him. A fraction of a second later he screamed as all of his power was stripped from him, forever. As the ax faded from his hands he felt something deep within him being forcibly broken. And he knew he would never regain his power, even if he did somehow live through this. He was now as helpless as Sonya had been, moments before her death.

The next thing he knew he felt the clawed hand of the Nightmare grabbed him by the flesh of his chest and pulled him up a hundred feet so he could stare into the eyes of vengeance. He clawed at the hand that wasn't a hand as it slowly dug deeper and deeper into his chest in its quest to squeeze the life from his heart.

"Pl-Please... show m-m-mercy." He gurgled out past a lungful of blood. Then he fought like a broken child as he was brought closer to the face in front of him. This close he could smell the breath coming from the fanged mouth in front of him. And it smelled life a rotting battle field, like a thousand dead bodies. This close he realized its eyes were not simply crimson coloured, the seemed to fall away into its head... forever. It was maddening looking into them. It was like staring into infinity itself.

_**"Did you show Sonya Mercy?" **_Shrieked Nightmare in a voice like the sheriks of countless weeping widows. Then without a shed of regret on its face it shoved the Captain into its maw of razor edged teeth and ate him whole. After swallowing the still moving mess Nightmare let out a roar of satisfaction as the blood of its fallen enemy sprayed from its mouth. But a voice caught its attention. It was a female voice, soft and caring. Nightmare looked around for the fool that was stupid enough to stick around. Nightmare was the Goddess of this world now, and it demanded fear!

"Raven please... remember who you are. You are my daughter. You don't want to be this. Calm down and become my little Raven again." Nightmare glared down at the woman that dared speak to it. It should have torn the flesh from its bones for its stupidity, but something in that voice stopped it. Something in that voice made Nightmare listen to it.

"Please my little Raven, listen to me. This isn't you. Remember what you look like. Resume you true shape. Remember who you are." said Ariella walking toward the towering beast that had once been her daughter. Nightmare looked down at itself. Was this not its real form? It was the Goddess of Chaos... this is what it looked like, but... there was another image in its mind, that of a small lonely girl. A girl with violet hair and a red Chakra upon her forehead, thin and little. Breakable. Hated. But... was that was it really looked like? Was it... human?

And so, ever so slowly it, began to shrink. Its face softened and paled. Its robes of flesh returned to being just fabric. And second by second, inch by inch its eyes shifted from four haunting blood jewels. To the soft and confused eyes of a little girl. Ariella rush to the shrinking monstrosity that was one again becoming her daughter. Raven became aware of herself again just as her mother pulled her into a tight embrace. She was confused, she could kind of remember what had just happened. But it was like a dream, the more she tried to concentrate on it, the more it slipped away. And just as she could feel the power inside of her start to settle down she realized her mother was crying.

"What's wrong... mommy, why are you crying?" asked Raven in an innocent voice. But she couldn't get an answer from her mother. Ariella just held her tighter and cried harder. Raven, who was now starting to get scared, noticed her surrounding for the first time. In the shadows of the buildings and alleyways there was a growing collection of Combat Magicians and Guards. Suddenly it dawned on her, the reason her mother was clutching her so tightly. Right now the fear of the Nightmare kept the death dealers at bay. But since they could see that Raven had reverted they would soon regain their confidence... and then they would come for her.

"Raven, can you escape?" asked Ariella quietly, speaking into Ravens shoulder so that no one else could hear her.

"What?" Her mothers question confused her. They were surrounded, how could she possibly escape.

"Use the power within you, it's not evil as long as your heart is pure. So call that power and flee."

Raven wasn't sure about this power. She had never been able to call it forth before. But... she could still feel Nightmare's power. It hadn't completely vanished yet. It was still there, waiting to be used. "But, you'll come with me right?"

"Yes." lied Ariella, I'll be right behind you. Now go, I'll slow down the soldiers."

"But..."

"Go!" yelled her mother as she let go of Raven and charged the few Combat Magicians that had worked up their confidence and had ventured into the courtyard. Raven, obeying her mother called forth what was left of Nightmare's power and... she didn't know what to do next. But the power did, it pressed into her mind and looked for a destination. And before long it found one; Earth. The place that always seemed so peaceful and forgiving in her mothers stories. And before Raven could do anything a white hot energy erupted from her. She tried to reach out to her mother, but she was nowhere to be found. The only thing she could see was a ring of the Guards kicking something... suddenly the rage she had been feeling a moment ago resurfaced and she lashed out. A tidal wave of black energy slammed into the guards, throwing them off of her mother.

Right before she lost sight of Azerath and was cast backwards thought the dimensions onto the plains of earth, she saw two things. Her mother standing up and watching her go, tears streaming down her face. And a black tendril of her energy reaching out to touch the _nearly_ decapitated body of Sonya. Then she was thrown backwards just as she thought she saw Sonya blink.

-

Raven finished the spell she had been working on and brushed away a silent tear. She had told Beastboy about her flight from Azerath a while ago. It had helped greatly to confide in another person... to share the pain. She guessed that Sonya had been the reason why she had kept the others at a distance. She always feared that some madman would be lurking in the shadows waiting to take away the things she became attached to. That was also why she used to throw Beastboy around so much. Sometimes it _was_ because he was getting really annoying. But most of the time it was because she felt such a strong connection with him, that whenever he would start to get past her defenses. She would get scared and shove him away... literally.

Then she felt a little tug at the back of her mind. She knew what it meant. A few months ago she and Beastboy... Mark, god would she ever get used to that name? They had decided to try something. Using her Empathic abilities they had practiced and gotten to a point where they could actually carry out a conversation without anyone knowing. It was a useful thing, because neither of them were really public speakers. Sure Beastboy seemed like the kind of guy who didn't mind crowds, but that was just with meaningless things. When it came to words of the heart he was almost as apprehensive as she was.

A mental tug was their way of a phone ringing. It allowed the other person to set aside any thoughts they didn't want shared yet. They had set it up after a very embarrassing practice session where he had caught her having a particularly intimate fantasy about him. They weren't at the stage in their relationship...yet. He had none the less enjoyed how red she had gotten. And he had shown her that she shouldn't be uncomfortable with him by sharing an equally intimate though with her.

They had had to cut that practice day short.

So she pushed the gift from her mind. It took a second because it just happened to be sitting in the stone bowl in front of her, completed. That done she opened the link between them. (Yes?)

(You okay, you were so upset it woke me up... need me to come over there?) By over there he meant down the hall, they were in the same wing now. Cyborg and Jinx were a little further down along with Starfire. Robin the work-o-holic was upstairs next to the command center.

(No, I'm okay. I just got caught up in some memories.)

(Was I in any?) He asked like the goof he was, but she could still feel that he was worried about her.

(Yah, and I'm fine now. Go back to sleep.)

(You sure? I could get you some tea.) Tea did sound good, but it was late and she didn't want to bother him. Maybe she would just get it herself.

(No, its okay-)

(To late.) He interrupted (I'm already putting the water on the stove, come down. Ohh lookie, there are a few blueberry muffins left, and there the little ones that you like so much!) She smiled, little elf knew what she wanted before she did. Kinda creepy. He better not be sneaking into her head.

(I'm not, don't worry.) Then (Uh, oh... It was just this once I swear, I wasn't sure if your were having a nightmare or what and I didn't want to wake you... scouts honor.)

(You were never a scout.) She said as she already forgave him. She could never really stay mad at him. Even though he might cross a line or two, he always had her best interests at heart. Plus he did have a good reason... and there really wasn't much left in her head he didn't already know. (But don't let it happen again)

(Got it, so ya' coming?)

(Yeah, I'll be there in a minute.) She said getting up and started to put away the leftover ingredients and the stone bowl. Then she gently placed Beastboy's gift beneath her pillow. She had thought of hiding it in her underwear drawer. But if he decided he was going to go snooping for presents that would be the first place the little perv would look. Satisfied she had outsmarted her little green elf she turned to the door. But something in the mirror caught her eye. It was like there had been someone else's face in there, if only for a second. It had looked grotesque, monstrous. After a few moments she just shook it off and continued out the door. But she couldn't help but feel a little chill, so she just pulled her cloak a little tighter around herself and slid on her slippers.

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**_Please Read & Review_**

**Eternal-Loss**


	3. A Knight in Jade Armour

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_AN: Alright This is Version 3 of this story... so if you have read some of it before you're going to have to start over. Yes there are a lot of elements that are the same but if you just jump to the part you were at last time you'll be lost... K? Sweet._

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**Rise of an Immortal**

By Eternal Loss

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**Chapter 3: A Knight in Jade Armour**

**-**

Raven woke up at eight am like she always did. Still wearing the long blue night shirt she wore to bed, she settled down for a little meditation. Today was Beastboy's birthday. That wasn't why she was feeling a little on edge. It wasn't even her emotions she was feeling, they were Beastboy's. He was really agitated because the Titans East was coming, like always. But Aqualad would be there to. And every time Beastboy though of him he remembered what the 'alga-skinned bastard' (Beastboy's word) had said about Raven. She had gotten Beastboy to tell her some of the things that Aqualad had said. What he told her, between the curses he was verbally trying to invoke upon that _man_ had disgusted her. She _had_ once thought Aqualad had been an alright looking guy. But apparently he thought he was the heart-throb of every female on the planet. He was so full of himself she wouldn't be surprised if she found out the sun revolved around his ego.

That's why right now Beastboy was in the training room beating the hell out of a punching bag while pretending it was a certain Water logger asshole. It was his way of letting off steam. Otherwise you didn't see him in there very often. An hour later Raven was starting to feel a little hungry. After casting about to find where Beastboy was and seeing that he was in the kitchen, she decided she would wander down there to get something to eat. So she got up and stretched out the kinks in her back. On second thought she should have a shower first.

-

Downstairs eggs sizzled in a pan on the stove as Cyborg cooked. He and Beastboy had already had their 'eggs are baby chickens' argument, so now everyone could get on with their day. At the table Jinx sat and read a small novel. It was no where near the giant dusty volumes she had seen Raven reading, but it was better then melting her brain with television all the time. And speaking of brain meltage Beastboy was watching some action movie in the living room, which Cyborg was also watching from the stove when he wasn't flipping the eggs. After a few minutes of relative quiet Beastboy got up and walked into the kitchen and over to the stove where he had placed a pot of water a few minutes ago. As Cyborg tipped the eggs out of the pan and onto two plates he watched curiously as Beastboy got two cups out of the cupboard and placed them on the counter.

"BB, What are you doing?" Asked Cyborg when he swallowed the first egg.

"Making tea, Raven's going to be down in a minute."

"Two cups. What you drink tea now to?"

"Nah, that stuff always tasted bitter to me." Said Beastboy pulling a face. Then he reached into the cupboard and pulled out two boxes. The first one was a weird tea Raven seemed to like, and the other was a box of hot chocolate. With a little snicker at Cyborg he put one tea bag in the right cup and then a few table spoons of the brown powder in the left one, and then filled both with the hot water. His task done he picked up both cups and set them down in front of two adjacent chairs across from Cyborg and Jinx.

"Dude, I've been meaning to ask you. How do you know things like when Raven will be downstairs?" asked Cyborg as he bit into a piece of toast. Before he answered Beastboy thought for a moment. Although they had told Cyborg and Jinx about their relationship, actually Cy and Jinx were the_ only _one's who knew about their relationship. They would tell the others soon, but not right away. They were both a little nervous about the reactions they would get. But anyway, neither he nor Raven had told Cy or jinx, or anyone for that matter about their mind link. But he guessed since they had already told the two about their new status, It wouldn't hurt to admit the mind link.

"Well you know that Raven is an Empath right, feeling emotions and things." He started

"Beastboy your crazy." said Cyborg as he puffed out his chest. "We're men, we don't have emotions" Then the two men broke into laughter as Jinx just rolled her eyes. She wished Beastboy would get on with it, she had been wondering how he seemed to anticipate Raven's moves as well. She was also wondering if it was something she could teach to Cy.

"No seriously... yeah an Empath. So?" said Cyborg when the laughter stopped.

"Well, your not going to believe this, but if she really concentrates she can read minds." This stopped the others for a moment.

"Okay." said Jinx. "Creepy."

"No, she never does it of course. But she can open her mind enough for us to speak back and forth. And recently I have been able to feel things like when she woke up or when she gets hungry."

Cyborg raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Well fine if you don't want to tell me."

"No its true!"

"liar."

"No really!"

"Right. Prove it."

"How." But before Cyborg could answer the doors opened and Raven walked into the common room. She walked deliberately into the kitchen and took the seat next to Beastboy. After nodding a thanks for the tea she took a sip and then started to decide what she wanted for breakfast. As Cyborg watched there seemed to be more going on then he noticed. Beastboy had an expression on his face like he was asking Raven to do something and she just waved her hand at him like she was telling him to grow up. This seemed to go on for a while when to the surprise of both Cyborg and Jinx Raven spoke up.

"Oh fine." She said with a defeated sigh. "We can talk without words. There now stop bothering me." Then she got up and moved into the kitchen to make herself some toast.

For a few moments Beastboy grinned smugly.

"That proves nothing." said Cyborg.

"What? Sure it does!"

"No." He said finally "She could have been listening outside the door."

"Does Raven really strike you as an eavesdropper?" It was now Beastboy's turn to look skeptical.

"Still..." Was all Cyborg responded with, Jinx just shook her head. Men and their egos. They always had to be right.

"Fine then, what would it take to convince you."

"Get her to say something that only you could know." Said Cyborg with a grin thinking he had outsmarted his friend. Little did he know that in a few minutes he would be regretting these words and damning his cocky 'I must be right' attitude to the lowest circles of hell.

"Fine." Then Beastboy started to think. Something only he knew. What could he ask Raven to say. Game scores? No she could have seen them. What else? All the while he tried to prove himself Beastboy made one critical mistake. It took a mental effort to close down the link between Raven and himself, and he had forgotten to do it after he had asked her to help prove Cyborg wrong the first time. Raven was just about to tell Beastboy to stop thinking into her head when Beastboy ran across a thought only he and Cyborg knew. Immediately he cast it aside as _way_ to dangerous to tell Raven, even to prove himself to Cyborg. He wanted to be right, not nailed to the ceiling. And that was when Raven decided to silently tell him about his little mistake.

Cyborg was wondering if there might be a little truth to what Beastboy had said about a mind link when his small friend suddenly looked up at him in absolute horror and paled like a ghost. Behind him Cyborg could see Raven turning around slowly. She was red in the face and looking quite pissed off. Except if Cyborg wasn't mistaken that was a blush of embarrassment rather then of fury. A second later Beastboy pulled a horrifying expression that appeared in quite a lot of movies lately. Everybody knows that face. Its that one where there are two characters standing facing each other. The first one can see the thing creeping up behind the second. He can see it getting ready to pounce and tear apart his friend. But there isn't enough time to warn him. There's only enough time to make that 'face' before his poor friend is dragged off into the darkness, screaming and clawing at the floor.

"Oh god..." mumbled Beastboy as he began to sweat.

"What? Whats going on?" asked Cyborg, now even Jinx was wondering what was up.

"Yes Beastboy. Do pry tell. What is going on tomorrow at four thirty am?" Asked Raven in a sarcastic sweet voice as she walked up behind Beastboy and started hard into the back of his head as though willing it to explode. Now it was Cyborg's turn to pale. He knew what was supposed to happed at that time, and if Raven knew...

"Oh god." whispered Cyborg agreeing with Beastboy. Then he slowly started to edge his way away from Jinx. If Raven knew what he though she did. He was going to want a head start. He cursed whatever weakness made both him and Beastboy fall for women that could kick their asses.

"What's going on?" asked Jinx as Cyborg backed up, looking at her like she was the devil.

"The boy's were planning a little military operation tomorrow morning. A raid if I'm not mistaken, a pantie raid?" At this Beastboy made a futile attempt to run away before he was slammed back into his chair by a tentacle of black energy.

"Told yeah." Said Beastboy weakly as Cyborg was also grabbed by a similar appendage on his way to the door.

"They wouldn't" said Jinx dangerously, turning to her mechanical man who only cowered and whimpered.

"Oh yes, they were planning on grabbing something green and lacy from you." Raven said calmly as Beastboy's cup of hot chocolate grew legs and danced to the edge of the table before dumped itself in his lap. He deserved it. When he had planned the raid he had decided to grab a certain little black thing with a tiny red bow from her room. Oh yes, he deserved it.

A moment later Robin walked in through the door and stopped at the sight that met him. Raven was blushing harder then he had ever seen her. Jinx was yelling something about 'lacy panties' at a cowering Cyborg. And when Beastboy ran past him in his underwear yelling about how it burned, his pants flapping behind him. Robin just calmly turned around and walked out again.

"And they wonder why I lock myself in the training room?"

-

Beastboy was having a good time, the music was loud and the lights were bright... and Raven hated it all. But it was Beastboy's birthday, and she guessed she could stomach this hell for a little while at least. But she swore to god if kid flash gave her one more knowing wink she would show him what his own appendix looked like. Every since Cyborg had had a 'chat' with the speedster about their mutual acquaintance, Jinx. He had been looking for someone else. So far he had been hitting on Bumblebee and Starfire all night. The only reason he had moved onto her was because Robin had given him a look that even she envied and taken Star out of the picture. Beastboy had been too caught up in the party to really notice Kid Flash's stubble hint's. She guessed she could tell him, or she could just slap quickstep around for a bit. But a body being thrown at a wall or two might ruin the friendly atmosphere. So for the sake of peace she guessed she could ignore him, for now.

It was Beastboy's eighteenth birthday. Yeah, who'd guess he was a year older then she was. And since it was an eighteenth birthday, there was the expected presence of alcohol. Of the people present, only herself, Mos, Menos and Hotspot were underage. Personally she wouldn't have touched the stuff even if it was legal, she hated the taste of beer or whiskey. Now if they had some good wine, maybe. As she walked around the edge of the dance floor she noticed that Star was doing some sort of crazy dance with Robin, Speedy was slow dancing with Bee, and if she wasn't mistaken Cyborg and Jinx were doing the twist as they killed themselves laughing. They weren't even moving to the music, well Speedy and Bumblebee kind of were. But still she didn't think that 'Stricken' was a very good slow dancing song.

On the other side of the dancers Beastboy waved at her before being dragged back to the game station to finish the tournament that he had started with Hotspot, Mos, Menos, Kid Flash and Wildebeest. He was starting to look a little red in the face, she had seem him down a few drinks already. She nodded in returned before continuing on her way to the snack table. No matter what the holiday was she always seemed to end up here for most of the time. Just sitting in a chair glaring about her. Last Christmas Beastboy had wandered close to her when she had set up her pop can fortress (They had been secretly seeing each other for a few months by then) and whispered to her that she looked very cute when she glared. The memory brought a nearly invisible smile to her lips.

A short while later Cyborg lead an exhausted looking Jinx from the dance floor over to the table that Raven sat at. His Cybernetic body might have nearly limitless endurance. But Jinx was only human, and she was fairly tired after all that dancing.

"Hey Raven, taken your usual post I see." Said Cyborg when he got close enough to be heard over the thumping beat from the sound system set up a little bit behind where Raven sat. She just glared at him in response. She tried to tell him without words to keep his mouth shut. Aqualad was not to far away, and judging from the way he was staggering he had over-indulged. If he had the foul mouth he did when he was somber, she didn't want to met the guy he was totally drunk.

Luckily Cyborg got the hint and while getting a couple cups of the fruit punch (the non-spiked one) had position himself in a way that his large body blocked her from sight until the womanizer walked away. "I know Fish-Boy can be a little annoying, but why are you hiding from him?"

Raven peeking around him, and only after seeing Aqualad wander over to get himself another rye-and-coke did she answer. "He's a perverted pig who only thinks with his lower brain." Her statement caught Cyborg off guard and he choked on his punch as he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Raven dangerously.

"He's not that bad..."

"You didn't hear what he said to me an hour ago." said Jinx with a glare in the direction that Aqualad had disappeared.

That dropped the smile from Cyborgs face faster then a anvil from a cliff. "What did he say... I'll kill the little bastard!"

"Calm down." said Jinx with a cocky smile. "I already too care of it."

"Huh?"

"Did you see him limping, well lets just say I helped him find the hardest part of the floor."

"That's my girl. But next time let _me_ put the hurt on him." said Cyborg his grin back.

The conversation went on for quite a while after that. They talked about what they had gotten Beastboy (Raven wouldn't say) about what an ass Aqualad was, what kind of dance Star was trying to do. Basically they talked about nothing. It was small talk, the kind of conversation you have while waiting for the bus or around the breakfast table when everyone is still asleep. Its pointless and easy to follow, but its just something to pass the time. And it did that very well. It seemed like it was no time at all before the three where caught by surprise. A slurred voice brought Raven out of her little bubble. She had been doing a good job of ignoring her surroundings, she didn't like crowds. She was a very private person and she hated being the center of attention, most of all she hated being put in very uncomfortable predicaments. Which definitely include being embarrassed in a crowded room full of all the people she knew. To bad that was just about to happen.

"Hey beautiful, what are ya doing over here? You should be in my arms on the dance floor baby." Said a beat red and rather unstable Aqualad. He pulled a grin and the stench of whiskey assaulted everyone near him. Raven turned to face him completely, her rage smoldering.

"What?" She asked, her voice dripping with venom. Jinx clenched her fists, getting ready to back Raven up if Water-boy needed to be taught a lesson. And Cyborg just stood there with his mouth hanging open. Did Aqualad want to die this badly? He could have picked a million ways to off himself that were a hell of a lot less painful then what Raven was going to do to him. Damn, look at all the pain she put BB through before she opened up to him. And Beastboy approached her with humor and respect. What Aqualad was doing could be considered assisted suicide in most countries.

"Ah don't be that way sweet thing, You know you want me."

Cyborg was panicking now. If that dumb-ass kept it up Raven and Jinx were gong to have to ruin the party by sending him to the hospital. And god help them all if Beastboy found out. Most people who only had a passing acquaintance with the green guy though he was a happy-go-lucky, easy going laid back guy. But Cyborg knew him better then pretty much anyone... except probably Raven. And he knew that Beastboy _was_ a pretty easy going guy, most of the time. You could pick at him all you want and he'll take it. He would forgive even the most bitter betrayal or the worst act against him. But hurt someone he cares about... we'll lets just say it would be a god send if its Raven that teaches Aqualad the lesson he is so begging for. Because if Beastboy got a whiff of what was happening The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse couldn't hold him back.

"I think you'd better leave." said Jinx

"So'kay sweet thing, if you dump the garbage can I'll take you too. There more then enough Aqualad to go around." He said downing the last of his drink. Had this comment not torn Cyborg from his 'Beastboy prevention' the party might have gone on for a while longer. But he was putting so much processor power toward not tearing the fish-stick apart he didn't notice that Beastboy was sitting on the couch, still totally engrossed in his tournament. Well out of ear shot. But well within the limits of the mind link he and Raven shared.

"Leave... Now... Before we help you into a hundred cans of tuna the hard way." Said Cyborg barely controlling himself as he placed a hand on Jinx's shoulder so he would be ready to hold her back.

"Fine, I need another drink anyways." Said Aqualad thickly looking into his empty glass as though it might refill itself. "Remember what I said doll." He said to Jinx as he passed her.

She quickly debated about setting him ablaze with the spell of eternal flames. But before she could come to a decision Aqualad made the worst mistake of his life.

First he walked around Cyborgs considerable width and stumbled closer to where Raven stood. And then he said; "I'll be waiting for you at the bar, see yeah sexy."

Yes that was pretty bad, but If he had left it at that it would have spared him much pain. But he couldn't, in a second a very stupid idea would pop into his foggy mind. Just as he continued on his way to the booze, and Cyborg, Jinx and Raven began to let down their guard expecting him to be gone in a few seconds. He did it. His hand swung with drunken assurance and arrogance, and with a smack that seemed to echo above that thundering heavy metal music. He slapped Raven's rear.

Immediately all of the glasses on the table next to Raven were encompassed in black energy and exploded, covering the party snacks in broken glass. Then, the glass Cyborg was holding slipped form his grasp as he and Jinx pulled matching horrified looks. The glass of red fruit punch seemed to fall forever, like time was slowing. As the glass fell, the Titans closest to the situation turned to the loud and sudden sound. Mouths fell as realization dawned on them. And across the room, the controller fell from Beastboy's hands. He was to far away to have heard let alone seen the deed. But he felt Raven's horror and embarrassment though the link. Normally the link had to be opened, at least from one side consciously for anything to get through. But the disgust and rage that Raven felt was so strong that it wiped everything else from Beastboy's mind. Everything except retaliation.

Had Raven not been in such deep shock she would have taken the appropriate actions. But she was so overwhelmed that she froze for a second, and that second was all that Beastboy needed. As Cyborg felt his glass shatter at his feet, spraying his feet with glass and punch. He also heard Beastboy's growl as he vaulted over the back of the couch. He ran like a madman, rage consuming and fueling him. His legs pushing him faster and faster as he ran toward his nemesis. Robin who just realized what was happening tried to grab him as he passed. But Beastboy easily slipped through his fingers and tore passed a startled Starfire. She had never seen her friend so angry. The look on his face was horrible and almost painful to look at. Now almost all eyes were on him as he didn't even try to run around the tables between him and the still shocked Raven, he ran _through_ them. Glasses and plates of food fell to the ground and shattered as the tables were flipped over with the crash of broken wood.

Cyborg turned to Beastboy and tried to grab him before he could get at Aqualad who still grinned dumbly, not knowing what was coming. Had Cyborg been a little faster, had he not hesitated a fraction of a second debating if he should just let BB go. He might have caught his friend. But he didn't, and Beastboy flashed past him, just out of reach. Then the next thing anybody knew a earth shattering crack filled the room as Beastboy's fist slammed into Aqualad's jaw with almost inhuman force. Aqualad was thrown back through the snack table sending it end over end, throwing all of the bowls and broken glasses in every direction. But the blue Titan didn't stop there. His body sailed into the speakers and knocked the stereo over, stopping the music and casting deathly silence over the room. And just as the last shards of glass ceased their dance and laid still. Cyborg finally grabbed Beastboy and held onto him with all the strength in his artificial muscles. But that did not stop Beastboy from trying to inflict more pain on the bastard that had laid hands on _**his**_ Raven.

_"Try it again you __**son of a Bitch. JUST TRY IT!" **_Roared Beastboy, spittle flying from his fanged mouth. His face contorted in absolute and total rage. By now everyone was aware of what was going on. Glasses were held in loose hands and there were dozens of whispered conversations between those who saw what happened, and those that didn't. In a matter of a few seconds everybody knew what Aqualad had done, and few could say they wouldn't have taken the same actions as Beastboy did; given the same situation. But those few seconds were not enough to cool the burning flames in Beastboy. Even though Cyborg had the power to move buildings he was still having trouble restraining his friend. Another few seconds and he would lose his grip and Beastboy would be loose again. A few Titans moved closer to Cyborg, wondering if they should help him restrain Beastboy. Others went and examined Aqualad, finding him lying unconscious beneath the toppled Stereo. Knocked out by the combined force of alcohol and the herculean punch.

"BB, you have to calm down." Said Cyborg in a strained voice as his grip started to slip.

_"No! _He went to far! _He Must pay!" _Yelled Beastboy as he continued to fight against his friend. By now Raven had regained enough control over her emotions that she was pretty sure the whole tower wasn't about to go nuclear. So she silently moved so that she stood between the downed Aqualad and her Beastboy that was still trying to put Aqualad on the extinct marine life list. To everyone else it just looked like Raven was recomposing herself. But Cyborg and Jinx knew better, they knew that she was trying to talk him down.

_"I don't care. _If he can't keep his hands to himself I'll tear them _off!" _Beastboy yelled a little softer. Whatever Raven was saying it must be working, because Cyborg could feel the fight slowly slipping from Beastboy.

"BB, listen to her. You've proved your point. There is no reason to beat him into a pulp." Said Cyborg

_"He deserves it!"_

"That maybe so, but don't lower yourself to his level." Beastboy was calming down. Cyborg thought he would be able to let go of him right away. But then Aqualad woke up; and hell once again broke its bonds.

"Damn," groaned Aqualad. "How did I get down here?" Then he caught sight of Raven standing with her back to him as she slowly calmed down her Beastboy. Since Aqualad's fuzzy mind had be too slow to even register Beastboy's attack. It came up with, what it believed, was the only way a female could get him unconscious on his back. The second the words were out of his mouth, everyone's jaws hit the floor in utter disbelief.

"Guess what they say is true, the quiet ones are crazy in the sack. Ha, always knew I'd get in her pants one day."

Cyborg who had been having trouble holding onto his friend before because he was squirming so much, barely overrode his instincts to get as far away from BB as possible when he completely lost control. A minute ago Beastboy had been pissed. But had Cyborg not grabbed a hold of him, he probably would have just kicked Aqualad in the head a few times. But now Cyborg held on for dear life, because he didn't dare guess what Beastboy might do now. The feral animal roar that came from Beastboy's mouth would have sent a whole pride of lions running in shame. Everyone in the room jumped back. Even Raven seemed a little taken back by the ferocity of the scream. Cyborg's arms began to register a major increase in resistance. It seemed the Beastboy had stopped trying to _worm _his way out of Cyborg's arms and was intent on breaking his way out. It was like all of the reason had gone from him. It was like the man in him was gone. But if that was the case...

"Oh Hell!" Screamed Cyborg "BB, calm down. You have to calm down, the Beast is taking over."

"Whoa mate, what's up with you?" Mumbled Aqualad as he unsteadily got to his feet. Then he wobbled over to where Raven was still standing with her back to him. He raised his hand and Jinx made to stop him. But before she could even twitch Raven's black magic's grabbed the bastard around the throat and slammed him into the back wall several times. When she released him a moment later, he just crumpled to the ground and stayed silent as blood dripped from his freshly broken nose.

"He needs his pills." yelled Cyborg as he struggled to keep his arms locked. Because Beastboy was held tight against his chest Cyborg could feel his small friend begin to change. It was happening fast, too fast. Beastboy was supposed to keep a bottle of the suppressants on him at all times. Except he always forgot them on his dresser. But either way, if they were on his dresser or in his pocket it didn't do any good. They were out of reach and it would be to late before any of them could get the damned things.

_Damn it_ thought Cyborg as Beastboy's head, which usually stood at about five ten was slowly beginning to creep past Cyborg's six four eye level. Against his chest Cyborg could feel bones braking and reshaping themselves, muscles bubbled and grew dramatically in size. And just as a mane of green hair began to obstruct Cyborgs vision. Something unbelievable happened. Raven moved forward, and in full view of everyone else in the room. Pulled Beastboy into as tight an embrace as could be allowed with Cyborg still trying to restrain him from behind.

Not for the first time tonight a silence filled the room. Even Jinx and Cyborg were flabbergasted. Raven was the definition of a private person. As far as they knew they were the only two people on the _Planet _that knew Beastboy and Raven were together. They couldn't even imagine what will power it took to, right in front of everybody, get this up close and personal with her boyfriend. They were about the best friends either one of them had, and even they hadn't seen so much as a light touching of the hands before this. But then the man that had only moments ago been trying to tear his way out of Cyborgs arms stopped, and began to shrink back down to his normal size. The wild mane of hair disappeared and his body shrank until, when Cyborg released him a second later. It was Beastboy that was blushing and quite surprised to find Raven in his arms and everyone staring at them like they were just told the world was run by the mice.

"Uhhh." said Beastboy, still confused until he saw Aqualad lying on the ground a little ways away. In a flash his memory returned. He would have wanted to kick the water-logged bastard a few more times. But he could feel how hard it was for Raven to be this open with everyone around. So he gently pulled away and glared around him as though daring anyone to say something. Pretty much everyone had something they wanted to say, a few just wanted to point and yell gibberish. But after what they had just seen they all wisely decided that it wasn't the best time in the world to risk pissing Beastboy off. Raven, after pulling her hood up so that she could hide in its shadows, quickly headed for the door with Beastboy right behind her.

-

Raven was sitting on the couch as Robin, Starfire and Cyborg walked the Titans East out. Had she been down stairs when would have heard Bumble Bee apologizing _again_ for Aqualad's behavior. But she wasn't, she was watching the sun as it was just about to touch the tops of the tallest buildings. It had been two hours since the Aqualad incident. The party hadn't really went on long after that. The people mostly just stuck around to talk about what they had witnessed. This didn't sound like a good thing to Raven, she hadn't wanted her relationship with Beastboy to come out in such a way. Some of the Titans still couldn't believe what they had saw, they thought it couldn't possibly be what it seemed. Others had come to terms with it, but still felt the need to discuss it in detail. So for the past two hours a constant babble had replaced the music that was still absent, apparently she had destroyed the stereo when she had slammed Aqualad into it.

She had calmed down a while back. When she had first fled from the party she felt like she was going to blow up the whole tower. She was furious, embarrassed and she hated Aqualad. But Beastboy had followed her and had caught up with her just outside her room. He did his best to calm her down but he couldn't, what she needed was a long meditation. Normally it would have taken at least eight hours of deep concentration before she would be able to regain control. But this time it had taken barley and hour and a half, it wasn't a mystery how that had happened. While she had been hovering above her bed in a trance Beastboy had never left her side.

He had momentarily moved away from her to get a book off of her shelfs, but then he was right back at his post. He had grabbed one of her books that told the story of an ancient battle;_ boys and violence._ and then taking up a guard at the foot of her bed facing the door he read as she meditated. Just his presence there seemed to calm her down. And after a while she reached out to him through their link, he was still furious at Aqualad for what he had done. And she was surprised to find he was also angry at himself for letting him get to her, he believed he should have found a way to stop him.

She smiled, so her little elf was also a hero. Looks like she got her white knight after all.

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_Well see the first confrontation between the Titans and Jaden next chapter... i'll update as soon as i have edited it..._

_p.s. I have up to chapter 5 written... just gotta edit and then it'll be up. Not to long i promise._

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**_Please Read & Review_**

**Eternal-Loss**


	4. Devil on the Horizon

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_AN: well ello peoples... sorry for the long wait... i have moved and its going to be a little while before i have internet again... right now i;m sitting in a park a few blocks from home watching my siblings, being eaen alive by misketos and typing this... haha stupid family with no secuirty on their router... anyway... chapter five is done also and will be up soonish... i'lll come back to the park to update if i have to... to the person who asked if i could update on the 11th... i'm sorry i just read your review when i found this open router... and that was on sat at 622pm, so sorry... but i hope you like this anyway... alright... enough gabber... on with the show!_

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**Rise of an Immortal**

By Eternal-Loss

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**Chapter 4: Devil on the Horizon**

It was getting late and she still hadn't given Beastboy her gift yet. She was wondering how she should do it, she had never been a present person before. Sure she usually got some things for the others on their birthday's and Christmas. But usually she just dumped it on the table where all the rest of the gifts were being kept or threw it under the tree. But not this time, this was something she wanted only him to see, at least at first. She was sure the others would see it eventually. But she wanted to be alone with him when he opened it for the first time. Just then, as if on cue she felt a little tug at the back of her mind.

(Yes?) she asked

(Come up to the roof, I got a surprise for you.) He said sounding really excited. A minute ago she had been feeling a little nervous as she hoped he would like her gift. But just hearing his voice brought peace to her mind.

(It's your birthday, shouldn't you be getting surprises instead of giving them?)

(Yeah, but I had a great idea-)

(That's a first) she said jokingly cutting him off.

(Ouch, you wound me. So are you coming or not?)

(Yeah, be there in a second.) She said standing up and started walking toward the elevator that would take her up to the roof. A few moments later as the elevator started to rise she could swear she could hear music. But she just dismissed it thinking that downstairs Cyborg had gotten the stereo fixed. But when the doors opened, she was rendered breathless by the sight that met her.

There was Beastboy, dressed all sharp in a dress shirt, black dress pants and little blue bow tie standing just in front of a small round table. On the table there was a candle lit dinner for two set up, the tall white candles flickering in the light breeze. Next to the table, on its own special cart. Two silver dome covered plates sat, beads of moisture collecting on the reflective surfaces due to the heat contained inside. A little to each side two tall speakers had been set up. The soft music coming from them along with the golden light cast by the setting sun seemed to completely the perfect picture she was looking at.

"Oh my... did you do all of this yourself?" She asked breathless.

"Yeah, do you like it?" He asked nervously.

"Of course." She said with a small smile. Beastboy just grinned back.

"So, whats in those?" She asked pointing at the silver domes.

Beastboy shrugged innocently "I dunno. You have to find out. But first..." he hit a button on a remote hidden deep in one of his pockets and the music got a little louder and switched songs. It was a slow song, quite romantic really. She was wondering what he was planning when he took her hand and led her a few steps away from the table.

"Oh no." She said quickly realizing what he had in mind. "I don't dance, i can't... i don't know how."

"So'kay, neither do i. But its a slow dance. You just stand real close and kinda shuffle around, there's nothing to it." But she was still skeptical, and he knew it.

"C'mon Rae, you can't possibly dance any worse then me. And you don't have to worry about anyone else seeing. It's just you and me, no one else for miles around." Said Beastboy sweeping an arm at the fading sunlight illuminating the tops of the city. "No one to get embarrassed around."

"I guess..." Raven said slowly. The next thing she knew he had placed both of her hands at his waist and had done the same to her.

"Now, just get the beat of the music and when your ready..." Raven listened to the music for a second and then she felt Beastboy moving slightly. Following his lead they slowly started to move in a lazy circle.

"See, nothing to it," he said with a grin and was rewarded in kind. They danced through several songs like that, moving closer and closer until she was resting her head on his shoulder and he had his cheek pressed up against hers. As they moved she found herself slowly hypnotized by the beating of his heart. Then just as the fifth song was about to end her stomach growled, apparently it wasn't happy with the soda and chips she had had at the party.

"I'm getting kinda hungry too." said Beastboy. But neither of them wanted to stop.

"Yeah." agreed Raven. And then they dance through another song.

"The food's getting cold."

"I know." They dance through another song.

Finally ten minutes later Beastboy pulled back a little, not completely away. But far enough for Raven to fell a cool breeze rush into where he had previously been. He gently laid his forehead against hers, he chakra pushing back, it was strangely warm like always.

"Raven, what do... you..."

"What is it." Raven asked

She could tell something was on his mind, he had that look in his eyes that he was trying to force something out. After a cleansing breath he spoke again.

"Rachael, What do you think of me?"

That was a confusing question. He could mean a thousand things. She cared for him deeply, did she love him? She didn't know. Until she came to earth she only knew hatred and coldness. This new feeling... all of it was strange and alien to her.

Wait this was the perfect moment.

Reaching down into one of the pockets sewn into her cloak she pulled out the small present. Beastboy's eyes started down at the small package in curiosity. What was it? All previous thoughts had been pushed out of his mind.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Your birthday gift." she said pressing it into his hands. Now her own hands were fidgeting as he slowly pulled back the teal wrapping paper. Her heart was pounding in her ears. It _was_ small, was it to small, would he like it?

The wrapping paper fell to the gravel of the roof top and in Beastboy's hands it sat. It was a necklace, but not like any necklace he had ever seen. It had a thin delicate gold chain with a pendant, simple and elegant. But it radiated power of ... some kind. His specialty was shape shifting, he had no knowledge of magics but even he could feel that this was something special. But he couldn't take his eyes off of the pendant. It seemed to be a tiny glass dome, about the size and dimensions of a dime. Except, it seemed _way_ bigger on the inside. It was only a few millimeters thick, but the jade and violet smoke inside that swirled around each other in a perfect ying-yang looked like they fell away forever.

"Wow." Mumbled Beastboy, mesmerized by the delicate piece lying in his hands.

"Is that a good wow?" asked Raven.

Beastboy cracked one of his lopsided smiles. "Hells yeah. But, what is it?" he asked looking down at it again.

"Its a Yingshire, it's supposed to represent a persons heart and their feeling for another person. Typically its a tradition that is only held by the people of Azerath, but i thought you wouldn't mind." Raven's nervousness was gone, from the look on his face Beastboy love her gift. "When one person give it to the one that is very special to them, that completes them. It represents a leap of faith. It pretty much is like placing your heart in another persons hands, you prey they don't break it."

"I don't... know what to say." Said Beastboy completely bewildered. This was something he had never expected. But this was so Raven, he loved it. He was extremely careful as he clasped it around his neck and let it fall to a place almost right over his heart.

"Thank you, it means a lot to me And i will never let anything harm it or you, ever. I promise." Then he kissed her. She was shocked for a moment, then she fell into the feeling and was lost.

-

Around noon the next day Beastboy was alone in the garage. Loud heavy metal blared through a large boom box set up on one of the work tables. Along the walls tires and old spare parts hung on nails and hooks. In the center of the room sat Cyborg's precious T-Car, Robins R-Cycle, and a large Harley Davidson painted a midnight black. Its chromed engine gleamed in the morning light coming in through open bay door. The sun was just coming up and Beastboy was to on-edge to go back to sleep after his usual morning treatment. Quite unusual, usually he could barely stay awake until he got back to his room. So he had decided instead, to come here and work on his bike.

He had given up on the idea of having a scooter a while back. He had just decided it was a young kids dream, and so he had appropriately upgraded his wishes to something with a lot more power and speed. He connected the last hose and stood up, looking over his bike. It was finally complete. He had just finished dropping in a triple size nitrous oxide dispenser. It was designed to give any machine, namely his bike; a tremendous spike in speed for a short time.

Cyborg was warned him about putting 'Nos' in a Harley. He said Nos was a cars best friend, and it went pretty well with speed bikes, Yamaha's and Suzuki's and the like. But, according to him, Harley's had too much torque. Hit the Nos button and the whole engine was liable to tear itself apart and explode. But today when Beastboy had woken up he had an unexplainable urge to put in the juice. It was a strange feeling. Like if he didn't do it something terrible could happen. But shrugging it off Beastboy went about remounting the seat; he had cleverly hidden the large black canister beneath it.

Little did he know that he _was_ going to be in dire need of the Nos. That if he had not installed it this morning, come one thirty eight tomorrow afternoon something terrible _would_ happen. But on the subject of things not know. The biggest unknown was that he and his fellow teammates had just become the main interests of an extremely powerful God. One who ruled a quadrant of space millions of Parcecs away. One to who time meant nothing, who could as easily move through time, as any human could breath. One who had been around nearly since the dawn of time. But also, one who was not to be re-born as an immortal for another eleven days.

Little did Beastboy know… that right now, Neoneisa was looked down upon the events unfolding.

-

_7:30 AM_

Raven awoke at seven thirty like she did everyday. Except in her case she didn't need an alarm clock, she just _woke up_. She thought it was weird; she didn't have a good sense of time when she was awake. But for some odd reason she was a human clock while she slept. But pushing it from her mind as unimportant, she threw back the blanket and got up. Her long blue night shirt that went all the way down to her knee rustled in the quiet space.

She hadn't heard from her mother since she left Azerath; it was forbidden. Any communication with the 'demon child' was an unforgivable crime, so for her mother to not tell the council where she had fled to must be high treason. Everyone on Azerath had always expected her to become the next great Tyrant, to take her place at her father's side. So they had always been trying to find some proof of this; watching her every move, waiting for the moment when their worst fears would be confirmed. But she never gave them that. She fought her demon side with everything she had, beat it back with every once of will power she possessed. And for eleven years she kept herself under control. For eleven years there had been people who had either tried to make her lose control so they could condemn her, or took pleasure in torturing the 'demon spawn' because they knew that she wouldn't fight back.

Then six years ago a new council member was appointed; Herium. And the first thing he had tried to do with his new power was to have her thrown out of Azerath. Not to be allowed to go anywhere she wanted. No, they couldn't have her running free. But rather, he wanted to trap her in a pocket universe, where she could never be reached by Trigon or any of his followers. In which she would grow old and die alone, where the rest of the universe would be _'safe'_ from her. But when Herium had proposed this, Gwena; possibly the only other person aside from her mother that believed she wasn't going to try to destroy all of the know planets; had fought as hard as she could to stop the plan from becoming a reality.

But that was six years ago. And since there had never been any army of Warlocks trying to drag her back, she had to assume that Gwena had also helped her mother mask her destination. Making it impossible for anyone to figure out where she had gone. But sometimes in the darkest nights, when she was in the deepest realms of meditation she could_ feel_ Azerath, and it was in those moments that she figured out that every time she loses control and her demon side shows itself. She blazes like a beacon, an explosion of light and ripples in the essence of the dimensions. A few more ripples and they'll have her exact position. So, ever since that first night she dropped from the sky. _Every_ time the city is attacked, she gets a sickening feeling that Herium had finally found her, and is still trying to trap her in that pocket dimension. A shiver that was not totally due to the fact that it was a cool morning, hit her. Shaking it off she made her way to the bathroom to have her morning shower.

-

_12:55 PM_

Jaden the Tormentor stood in a dark room. The walls cast in shadows so deep that they seemed to eat any light that dared to stray near them. It was a room he had created. In a building created by the city of Jump. He was here, in the home city of the demon daughter. He was here to ensure that Neoneisa never came into being; he was here to destroy the demon daughter completely, firstly in mind. Then he would destroy her body. But the demon daughter was powerful. Trigon had tried and failed to re-enter this realm once before. Sure he had been _greatly_ weakened by his trip here. But somehow the demon daughter had summoned enough power to throw Trigon the Terrible off guard. She had surprised him, and in that moment, she had struck. Banishing Trigon to a hell dimension.

But she was ignorant, and arrogant. Trigon the Terrible created hell dimensions; he was not trapped by them. He stepped out of that pathetic hell in a single stride and devised a _new_ plan to get to earth.

Jaden would use a summoning spell of a level no Warlock has ever yet attained. Jaden would go to earth, and Trigon would enter the limbo between the worlds, there he would wait for Jaden to open him a portal large enough for him to enter. It wouldn't be as stable as the portal created with the body of the demon daughter. But it would do, after all the demon daughter could no longer be used. She has been purified.

In her last battle with Trigon the Terrible she was tested by the Elder Gods and deemed worthy to wield her full power, so her soul had been stripped of the darkness that allowed Trigon to influence her actions. Trigon doubted she even knew about this purification. But none the less it also stripped her of the ability to become the portal once again. So it was up to Jaden to create a new way in which Trigon would enter this dimension. But first he had to rid this dimension of Neoneisa, the only threat against Trigon.

So in order to totally destroy Neoneisa, Jaden would have to totally destroy the demon daughter. And the fist step in killing anyone was getting to know you enemy's weaknesses. So here he stood, in a dark room. Waiting. He was waiting for three of his minions to attack the city and draw out the demon daughter. They were not expected to win against her, oh no; they weren't even expected to survive. They were there simply to put the traitorous daughter into a state in which Jaden would be able to read her. He could do this because pain and anguish were his specialty, he didn't earn the name Tormentor for being a nice guy.

He knew ways to exact pain that some lower gods were ignorant of. Pain was the only truth, when in pain; when in danger. A person's actions do not lie. They cannot lie. So when his minions put the demon daughter in enough danger, in enough pain. He will be able to see her every weakness, read deep into every movement. Then he would pick the most powerful one, the one he could utterly crush her with. And he would exploit it.

With barely any effort he bent the room to his will. The dark walls suddenly lit up with brilliant sunlight. It was as if someone had pulled up the shade on the world. Now he appeared to be standing in the middle of a crowded street. Cars tore past him at high speeds whisking their drivers off to their destinations. Birds flew over head, singing their songs. The wind blew, people talked and laughed. It was a beautiful day. And nobody seemed to notice the man who had just appeared in the middle of the street.

The sun didn't warm his skin; the wind couldn't move his hair. And a car drove right threw him as though he wasn't even there; which of course was the case. He wasn't really there. He was projecting himself onto another part of the world through sheer force of will and power. Convincing the universe itself that he was both in the dark room and in the street at the same time. This accomplished two things.

One, no one in either location could see or sense him in anyway.

And two, he could observe anything that happened in either location without being noticed. The perfect intelligence gathering technique.

He turned to look at the open café to his right. It seemed like any other coffee shop on the block. Small round wooden tables with large green umbrellas shielding the people beneath them from the sun dotted sidewalk in front of the open building. A few young women walked between the tables pouring coffee and bringing pieces of pie. But he was focused completely on one table. He was watching the two occupants intently; they were the key pieces of his plan. They would be the ones to alert the demon daughter to the disturbance here, and thus giving him his opportunity to observe her.

Everyone else on the street looked at the two people and saw what they were supposed to see. A large black man, about eighteen or nineteen years old, dressed in casual jeans and a Metallica t-shirt. He also had a few piercings in his ears and one on his eyebrow. Across from him sat a small pale girl, her long black hair fell about her shoulders in a dignified sort of way. Her eyes were a hard gray, which still sparkled with life as she laughs at another corny joke. A normal couple having a normal lunch date on a normal day. But that was what they were projecting. Sure it was a normal lunch date, with a caring couple. But they were anything but normal.

But Jaden had a gift, well actually he had many. But one in specific was that he could see through any disguise. Weather it be a magical glamor, like the pink haired witch was putting up. Or a holographic second skin that the mechanical man was wearing. He had many other gifts both powerful and terrifying, bestowed upon him by his Master and Father; Trigon. So he readied these many gift; knowing he would need all of them if he hoped of defeating the demon daughter. Watching and waiting for his minions to arrive. So he could begin to destroy his little sister, the blood traitor.

-

_1:20 PM_

"Victor, that's your fifth piece of pie." said a smiling Jinx. She knew it was hopeless. He was a pie maniac, and he wouldn't stop until he had tried every type of pie this place had. Luckily they only had six types. That meant there was a rhubarb pie on its way to their table right now. So with a defeated sigh she just took another sip of her fruit juice.

Jinx watched him wolf down his fifth piece as a young waiter brought the sixth. Personally, Jinx didn't like the disguises. She fell in love with Victor Stone, the super hero name Cyborg. Not this face, although when she had first met him he looked a lot like this, less a few improvements she had made to the hologram. But disguises helped them have a normal day without a hundred people gathering around for handshakes and photos and autographs and most recently... to get items to sell on EBay.

Some idiot fan-boy had been stupid enough to try to get a piece of her dress to sell. Last she herd he was still coughing up pebbles from that brick wall she sent him through. He deserved it. Cyborg of course had laughed; once he had made it clear to everyone around that the next one to try anything like that was going to end up with a steel foot in the ass.

Suddenly something caught her eye and she giggled. "He Vic, check out the guys in dresses."

Cyborg looked up, a fork still in his hand and saw three old men in black robes walking toward them. For a split second he had started to smile, it looked pretty funny. He had even just though of a really great Halloween joke. That was until he noticed their matching tattoos.

The fork fell from his mouth and clattered on the plate. He almost chocked on the pie as he struggled to swallow. Jinx, hearing the commotion turned around and saw a terrified expression on Cyborgs face. He was chocking, struggling to breath and frantically hitting the call button on the Titans communicator at the same time

"God Vic, take a breath." Said Jinx in a worried tone.

A crackle of static was followed closely by the sound of Robins voice emanating from the small round device in Cyborg's hand as he finally started to breathe again. "What's up? I though you and Jinx were off today. look we can handle…"

"Robin shut up!" Yelled Cyborg getting everyone's attention. Not only because he yelled, but because he got to his feet and shut off the hologram surrounding him. Now people could see now who he really was. "Three guys in dresses just showed up at Broadway and Ninth with the mark of Skath on their foreheads!"

"Skath?" asked Jinx confused, dropping her glamor so now she stood in her little black dress next to Cyborg who was still yelling into the communicator for the rest of the Titans to get here 'five minutes ago.' She started openly at the three men who came to a stop a comfortable distance away. They didn't look powerful, but she could sense magic in them. Now she was getting worried.

"Cy, tell them to hurry up, these guys are packing some serious power. If they decide to attack the two of us alone can't take them."

* * *

**_Please Read & Review_**

Eternal-Loss


	5. From Cradle to Grave

* * *

_AN: well, here i am again, just me and my shadow sittin in this park, piggy baking some dudes Internet router so i can bring you another high quality chapter... but anyways onto other stuff... i am half way through typing chapter six. No i do not know how much longer this story will be but we have a good number of plot points and lines to still cover._

_Don't worry, you'll know when it ends... i cry... you'll cry... some guy will say 'Raven is an emo who should kill herself'... i'll kill **him** and wear his skin as a poncho... while i keep him alive forever, giving him a salt rub down every half-hour... no skin, yah that'd hurt... but really i have gotten two flames... and both weren't even at me... the first was complaining about that all this romance shit was clouding the violence and mayham and that us authors should just make every chapter a fight..._

_DUDE! I love mayham and death as much as the next guy...and i probably love to torture my characters much more then most... i have been called evil and horrible and the seed of Satan. (loved that one... pm so don't bother trying to find it) but without the softer moments you don't learn to care for the characters. And the fights mean nothing... you don't care who lives and dies... it would make a horrid story... so please, go fk yourself._

_Anyway rage expired... hey _**poll number four (?)**_i forgot to put this at the end of chapter four...what do you think of Jaden being Raven's brother... to over the top... kick ass?_

_k. one more thing... my all time record for most reviews for one chapter is 19... lets try to beat that... with the poll and the ending to this chapter... i don't think you'll have trouble breaking the record._

**K, Curtain UP!**

* * *

**Rise of an Immortal**

By: Eternal-Loss

* * *

**Chapter 5: From Cradle to Grave**

_1: 23 PM_

The elevator doors opened and the four remaining Titans burst out into the garage. Robin, being the first to the light switches flooded the dark space with light. He then hit the large gray button that opened the bay door. The after noon sunlight glittered off of the roof tops of the city and reflected brilliantly.

"You two go ahead," he said to Starfire and Raven as he ran to where his bike sat. "Fly as fast as you can. From the sound of the enemy Cyborg and Jinx aren't going to be able to hold out for every long. Beastboy and I will be there as fast as possible."

Starfire floated over as Raven levitated into the air. "But Robin, we should…"

"Starfire go! You and Raven are the most powerful ones here, they'll need you. If you try to carry us you will be too tired when you get there. Plus we may slow you down, and every second counts." So with a nervous nod the little alien girl joined Raven at the open door, and together they blasted off toward the city pulling the water right out of the river with sheer speed and power.

"C'mon Beastboy you ride on the back…" he started to say until he turned around and saw that Beastboy was pulling the cover off of his Harley Davidson. Robin knew that Beastboy had finally gotten himself a bike, but he wasn't sure it was a good idea to take it to a crime scene. His R-Cycle and Cyborg's car were precisions vehicles designed specifically for crime fighting. Beastboy's was designed for a Sunday drive.

"Beastboy, I think you should just get on my bike, it's faster."

But Beastboy wasn't listening, at least not to Robin. It was like there was another voice in his head. It was so soft he wasn't sure if he really heard it or if it was just a feeling. But he suddenly had the strangest feeling that a matter of life and death hung in the balance, and the only way to tip it in his favor was to have his bike there with him. So without looking at Robin he grabbed his helmet, got on the metal beast, started its rumbling engine and shot out of the garage heading down the underground tunnel that connected the tower with the mainland.

Normally Robin would have yelled, told him to not be an idiot. But something held him back until the roar of the Harley was a distant whisper. After shaking off the odd feeling that he was being influenced he deciding he would take action later and tore off after his teammate. They were needed. There wasn't time for arguments and fighting.

-

1:24 PM

In a matter of only a few minutes the entire street had cleared out, leaving only five people standing. Coffee shops that had only moments ago be alive with laughter, stories and the scent of burnt coffee were now eerily silent. The streets that had always been packed to the breaking point were now empty. It was like the whole city had suddenly become a ghost town. Except for the five mortals, closely watched by an immortal.

Cyborg stood at the ready, his arm charged and standing by to deliver a one thousand decimal sound blast. Next to him Jinx had struck a strong battle stance, pink energy crackling around her deceptively small frame. Across from them the three monks marked with the Symbol of Skath just stood there. No magic hung in the air. No battle stances were taken. They just stood there in a row, waiting and watching.

"What are they waiting for?" asked Cyborg in a hushed whisper.

"How should I know, why don't you ask them?"

"I though you said they could tear us apart with a look."

"I never said that exactly… but yeah if they get bored we wouldn't stand a chance. Where are the others?" Hissed Jinx. She wanted an answer, not another question. So when one of the Monks spoke up what he said caught her off guard.

"We would also like to know when the Blood Traitor will be here. We have no interest in fighting you."

For several seconds nobody said anything, until finally Cyborg spoke up. "Who?"

"The Demon child that betrayed her heritage and cast her father from his rightful place upon the throne of this dimension." Jinx raised a confused eyebrow. But she didn't let down her guard. What if this was a ploy to distract them?

"Do you mean Raven?" asked Cyborg. But Cyborg never knew what they were going to say, because at that exact second a whole regiment of British 'Red Coats' marched out of the side of a building. Out near the front, next to the General atop his silver steed; a drummer boy was beating out a thumping marching beat. Behind him, stepping in perfect sync, the sound of their boots on the dirt seeming to echo forever came the first ghostly forms of the soldiers.

They were all young and looked like they had seen more then their fair share of violence. Their transparent bodies looked thin and underfed, their faces had a tired haunted look. Some almost looked asleep on their feet. The regiment kept on walking in a straight line oblivious to the five people staring at them, not even glancing around at the change in scenery... or century. Because to them it was still the sixteen hundreds and they were still off to fight the French for control of the new world. Then as silently as the appeared, they walked into the store front of the cafe across the street and disappeared until only the sound of a fading drum was left. For a long moments nobody said anything, all five people just stared at the spot where they had just seen the memories of a hundred dead men fade back into the past.

"Uh, was that you?" Cyborg asked looking back at the three monks that looked just as stunned as he did. The one that seemed to be their leader looked at his two subordinates and after getting an unseen answer he turned back to his enemies and debated about answering. But since he didn't see how it could be used against him he cleared his throat.

"No, the apparitions were not created by us. And judging from your question may we assume you are also not responsible?"

"Yeah, wasn't us." said Cyborg still keeping a weary eye on the three robed men. But then he cast a side glance at Jinx and saw the strained expression on her face. "You okay?"

"Yeah, but..." she frowned as she tried to put what she just sensed into words. "When the soldiers came i felt something."

"What was it?" He asked softly, so that the three monks couldn't hear.

"Well, unlike Raven who is a Sorceress my magic deals mostly with hexes and bad luck, not much to do with dimensions, time and ripples in underspace. But even I felt that last one."

"What one?" asked Cyborg getting a little worried now.

"Vic, that... whatever we just saw was a forced wave of time." She said, until she saw the blank expression on Cy's face. "Okay, sorry to drag out this dinosaur of a metaphor, but picture a pond. Drop a stone in the middle ripples fan out, 'kay?"

A nod.

"Alright, those guys we just saw were a ripple, a big one. In the river of time that was a damned tidal wave, it almost knocked me flat on my back." Then as an after thought "Hope Raven's okay. If it hit _me_ that hard, a girl who can't sense this crap at the best of times it must have nearly knocked her out."

"Jinx." said Cyborg "Where did the tidal wave come from?"

"The future."

"Eh?"

Jinx sighed. "I can still feel the pressure that the wave left, that means there are more powerful ones behind it. Meaning sometime in the future something colossal is going to happen."

"How Colossal?"

"Think along the lines of someone dropping a nuke into our little pond."

"Oh crap. We have to stop it."

"Vic your the sci-fi guy. What have the movies taught you."

"Don't come into contact with your other selves."

"No!" Jinx had seen a few of the time-travel movies, and a few of them_ did_ get it right. "The event has already happened. When it did, it sent waves up and down the time stream which are just getting to us now. But since we just got hit by one, it means that whatever happens to create the waves will happen because the waves are already here. Nothing we do can change that because if we could the waves wouldn't be here in the first place and we wouldn't be having this conversation. Got it?"

"I think you just fried like three of my computer chips."

-

Darkness, black and unending was all that Raven could see. She was vaguely aware that she had been falling, and someone might have caught her. But she couldn't comprehend that thought right now. Her mind had been so overwhelmed that she seemed to have momentarily lost her grip on reality. Then she got the feeling that someone was calling out to her. For what reason was unclear, she couldn't even make out the words. But she was also aware of presence near her, and it was that presence that slowly brought her back from oblivion, pulled her back into the light. Now she started to remember. There had been a time-quake. She had experienced a few back on Azerath, but the one she had just been hit with was of unfathomable power. She couldn't even begin to understand where it was coming from before her mind shut down to protect itself from the onslaught.

"Raven, are you hurt?"

A voice, who's. Was it important. All she was really feeling right now was a cold numbness. She tried without success to pull her thoughts back together. She had somewhere very critical to be right now. She had been on the way there when she had been hit by this wave of energy.

Starfire; yes. That was her voice that was calling out to her. Suddenly something occurred to her, she could feel Starfire kneeling next to her. But the presence that first brought her back from the darkness was everywhere. It was powerful, it was old, and it was watching. And just then the presence gave her a slight nudge toward the light and she sat blot upright, almost slamming her head into Starfire's face that was right in front of her.

"Oh good, you are unharmed."

"Star... what happened." asked Raven as she stood up. She still felt a little weak from the mental assault. But she was recovering fast.

"We were on our way to do battle with the followers of your father when you suddenly fell from the sky."

Her father! Thats where she needed to be, her father had sent his minions after her. Without a second to waste Raven levitated into the air and flew off with Starfire close behind.

-

A few seconds later the three monks were just coming into view when they were passing over BB and Robin speeding along on their bikes. On the ground Cyborg and Jinx were still standing at the ready, prepared for any attacks from the minks. But the three minks just stood their in their plain black robes, silently waiting in the middle of the dead street. The next thing Raven knew a white hot bolt of lightning lanced up from the ground and almost impaled her. But she managed to bring up a barrier in time and it was harmlessly dispersed against the black bubble. What the three monks had been waiting for had finally happened, the Blood Traitor had shown up.

The two less powerful monks broke off and engage the rest of the Titan team in order to buy the head monk enough time to accomplish the mission. Raven gritted her teeth as she watched the lead monk rise up to met her.

Starfire, seeing the two other Robed men charging at her friends dove down as fast as she could. On the ground Jinx released the powerful spell she had been building while the three monks had just stood there. A bolt of pink energy tore a huge ditch in the middle of the street as it ate its way to the two targets. But instead of being struck by the deadly spell the two Monks sidestepped with lightning speed, all the while making it look like it was just a slow lazy movement. After he watched the spell harmlessly pass him the youngest monk was mildly surprised to see a sonic wave being fired successfully at him. It carried much more power then the spell Jinx had cast. It contained a full third of the energy in Cyborgs power cell. Apparently Jinx's spell had just been a decoy, this was their real first attack.

The Monk smiled a little, like a parent would when a child brought home an undecipherable painting. The metal man had given it his best effort, so it would be kind to indulge him. Instead of moving or even trying to block the attack. The Monk allowed it to bypass his defenses and hit him square in the chest. For a moment Cyborg lost sight of the Monk in the after-flash. But when the light faded and the dust settled his mouth fell open. There wasn't a scratch on him. The Monk, this guy who was still just a kid shrugged off a blast that would have torn Cinder Block in half. In the sky, the Lead Monk looked down on the scene below him with a small smile. This would be easy.

Jaden watched the scene with an emotionless expression. All was going according to his plan. He would gather the information he required, and when he was ready he would destroy the Blood Traitor in his own time. He allowed himself a small smile. He was pleased it was going so perfectly, his master would be please it was going so perfectly.

He felt two other beings approving from the west. He frowned, that couldn't be right. _They_ shouldn't be here. There was no way. Turning so he was now facing the two motorcycles closing fast, he closed his eyes and concentrated hard.

There was no mistaking it. It was on of _them._

Jaden the Tormentor got a sour look on his face. Everything had been going so well, why did those medaling bastards have to intervene now of all times. He though he had masked his trail sufficiently when he had come to this desolate dimension. There should be no way that they could possibly find him. Sure they were strong, but he was Jaden the Tormentor! Son of the Demon-God Trigon the Terrible. The Right hand of Trigon himself! The master of pain and anguish, the breaker of a thousand minds! How they hell had one of those ... _things_ find him!

He was still grinding his teeth when the two bikes came to a stop and the riders dismounted and removed their helmets . The being on the red bike immediately ran into the heart of the battle, but the scum hesitated for a second. Yes, thought Jaden, there was no mistaking it now. He was one of them. He had that same disgusting green skin and pointed ear that his race shared. But ... he was young, and from the lack of Sjintock's ... he had not had his rite of passage yet. Jaden relaxed a little.

The Kilwrathy, although the bane of Trigon's armies, were not stupid. There was no way they would send a warrior that had not yet gotten his greatest weapons against _him_. This was all just an enormous coincidence.

Then in an instant Jaden froze, and started to laugh. No, there way no way in any of the hells. Jaden couldn't believe what he was seeing. The small Kilwrathy, the little green man had immediately transformed into an animal indigenous to this planet, and had taken flight ... toward the Blood Traitor. It would almost seem like an ideal move given the circumstances. Below the other four were fighting the two low-class mages, and the Blood Traitor was fighting the strongest, alone. But then he had many gifts given to him by his father, and it was because of this he only had to observe their fighting style for a moment before he saw it.

He laughed harder. How ironic that his little sister had taken a Kilwrathy as a mate.

The Kilwrathy were the sworn enemies of Trigon and had made many assassination attempts on the Blood Traitor, and even Jaden himself ... when he was younger. He could tell by the way that the Blood Traitor and the Kilwrathy constantly kept their backs together they they trusted each other completely. Also judging from the level of spells the Blood Traitor was using and the combat technique the Kilwrathy was utilizing they were prepared to do anything to protect each other. And that was not to mention their over-all body language. There was no mistaking it, they may-as-well be holding signs advertising it.

They were mates, and not to mention each others greatest weaknesses.

There was no need to waste this prime opportunity. All the weapons Jaden was hoping to find were here, and then some. First he would kill the Kilwrathy, well ... he would order the Kilwrathy's death. And thus he would sent the demon daughter into an endless rage. It was in this state of absolute pain and anger she would be at both her strongest and weakest. Sure there was all possibility that she would lose control of herself and launch fully into her demon form, and it was in that form she had access to powers a hundred time more powerful then she currently possessed. But she would also become sloppy with her attacks and defenses. And a hundred times her current power was nothing compared to the limitless oceans of power Jaden had access to.

Let her have her tantrum. He will still break her.

Her grief will be her down fall.

-

1:30 P.M.

The green pterodactyl shrieked as it attempted to claw the face of the lead mage. But he just laughed and threw another fireball at the bird of prey. Thinking she saw an opening Raven attacked from behind, casting a body binding curse at the man. But the curse just passed right through the pseudo-mage. He had somehow, in the single second it took for Raven to gather the power for the curse, teleported away and left an after-image in his wake.

"Where'd he go." Said Beastboy in the moment he had a mouth as he passed his human form and into the faster form of the Persian falcon.

"I don't know." Raven shouted back. Looking down she saw her friends weren't doing very well. But suddenly she felt the pressure of a very powerful being pressing itself onto this place in reality. Looking around she tried to figure out where the power was coming from.

There! On the ground the mages had stopped fighting and once again took up a straight backed standing position facing their enemies. A second later the lead mage appeared next to them, but it wasn't him that Raven felt. It was someone far more powerful... and familiar.

"No." Breathed Raven as she realized who was coming. In the middle of the street a humanoid form began to shimmer into view. The other Titans froze and stared in horror at the monstrosity that appeared to them. He was nearly seven feet tall and clad in what appeared to be a loose fitting sleeveless robe. His arms were cabled with muscles and his face was a burnt bronze color. His hair was a jet black and hung wild around his face. And the most disturbing part of him was his eyes; they were a flaming red colour, a gift from father to the only successor he trusted.

"Jaden, what are you doing here. Is our father trying to force his way into this dimension again?" asked Raven striking up a pose and hoping she didn't looked nearly as terrified as she felt.

"Oh. You know the old man. He conquers one dimension and he's onto another."

"Who are you?" demanded Robin in a very commanding voice.

The fake-pleasant voice and attitude dropped, and was replaced with smoldering anger. "Are you ordering me to answer you ... _vermin_?"

"Robin, Shut up." hissed Raven as she and Beastboy landed side-by-side on the pavement a little ways away from her brother.

"Raven is this man your brother?" asked Starfire, even she looked apprehensive at getting any closer to Jaden.

"Oh how rude of me." said Jaden, his false attitude back. "let me introduce myself. I am Jaden Satanspawn , more commonly addressed as Jaden the Tormentor. I have also been called The right hand of Trigon, The Breaker of a Thousand Minds and on occasion; The Master of Pain and Anguish. Now do we all know me? Good. Fredric Please kill the small Green man."

Everyone's mouths fell open, Robin tried to attack Jaden and Cyborg tried to run to Beastboy. Further back Beastboy was too shocked to move, and before Raven could cast any defensive spells a flash of yellow light blinded everyone. When the after flash faded all was silent for what seemed like forever. Raven just stared, she couldn't... wouldn't believe what she was seeing.

Beastboy was lying in the middle of the empty street a black and smoking burn mark on his chest. His eyes sightless and his mouth open in an everlasting scream. It looked like someone had pushed pause on his death. Tears started to fall from Raven's eyes. But when they hit the cold concrete, they sizzled and ate through it like acid. The sky darkened and the wind picked up. And in another dimension, on a floating city called Azerath they felt the re-awakening of Nightmare.

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_Any theories... i'd like to hear them_

**Please Read & Review**

**Eternal-Loss**


	6. A Race of Lunacy

_A/N: Well, ello._

_Sorry for the long wait. Stuff happened, a guy at my work broke his leg at a bar (use your imagination) and have to cover for him for two weeks. Anyway_

_YAH, i've got Internet back now... so updates are going to be easier now, and hopefully faster._

_I am sorry i kept you waiting so long, and now lets move on shall we? (P.s i edited the first 5 chapters for spelling, i think i got most of the errors, i will be uploading the fixed versions soon)_

_**K, Curtain up!**_

* * *

**Rise of an Immortal**

By: Eternal-Loss

* * *

**Chapter 6: A Race of Lunacy**

Floating.

Floating, if felt like floating. But it didn't really feel like anything at all. It was the sensation of floating without sensation of any kind. God just trying to understand it was making his head hurt. Wait, did he even have a head? He didn't know anymore. He was pretty sure he had one once. He recalled he didn't like it to much, but he did have one. Maybe. Why was he here? What had happened. With a jolt he remembered a flash of light and a searing pain in his chest.

Had he died? Was this the after-life? It was a lot more ... empty then he expected. From what he could see it was just black nothingness that went on forever. Total black, no lights. Nothing. Kind of boring really. Why was he here?

Raven.

There had been three dudes in dresses that had tried to hurt them, hurt Raven. He couldn't let that happen. Slowly without him noticing it, a light appeared far, far in front of him. Had he stopped them? Why the hell was he here. He should be back there, on that street still fighting, still protecting her. Sure she was a tough girl, she could kick more ass than anyone he knew. But he should still be by her side. Why was he here?

Anger. Rage. Pain. Alone. Empty

What were these feelings? He didn't think they were his. What did he have to feel angry about. And he didn't feel empty, just a little lost. Wait he remembered something. What was it, was it important? He though it was. Oh yeah, he remembered now. He and Raven shared a link, she could feel what he was feeling and he could feel what she was feeling.

The distant light came closer.

Had someone hurt her, why was she in pain? This was unacceptable. He fought against the reality that held him suspended in the blackness. His desire to ease the pain that his dark angel was feeling pulled himself back together. He was scared for a minute. It felt like pieces of him that were strewn out across other galaxies were rushing back. Memories and feeling smashed into him from all sides. He needed to be strong, he was needed. Power filled him. He was Beastboy, Garfield Mark Logan, a Titan, a power to be reckoned with. And god help whoever got between him and his dark angel.

-

_At the end of the sixth age; _

_On a distant planet, named Earth by its inhabitants._

_A mortal, with the help of the Ancient Gods;_

_Shall rise from the shackles of mortality._

_-_

A voice, it hurt to listen to, it felt like pure fire. Blood pounded in Beastboy's ears. His newly re-formed hands clamped over them trying to block out the voice. It was so loud it seemed to penetrate his skull and etch its will upon his open mind.

_-_

_This new being of immortality and Godship, _

_Will become know to all as Neoneisa; _

_The birthing of Neoneisa will begin with a murder,_

_The murder of the one closest to Neoneisa by Trigon the Terrible._

_-_

Trigon, what did he have to do with anything. But before the question even formed in his mind he had the answer. He knew that Trigon was trying to once again overthrow this dimension, and this time would be different. Last time he had been forced to shed all of his power when he had passed through the portal he had made from Raven's body. This time he had sent Jaden, his only son, here to summon him. And in doing so Trigon would be able to step onto this world with all of his powers intact.

-

_In the bloodlust and rage that will follow, Neoneisa will kill Trigon;_

_Thus ending the reign of Trigon the Terrible, _

_Freeing all of the worlds from the hell of the living_

_And so will begin the ruling of Neoneisa the Light_

_-_

Suddenly a blast of light more powerful then a thousand sun filled the universe that Beastboy had awoken in. It felt like his eyes melted in his skull, the unbound power that stood before Beastboy was crushing him simply by being there. Beastboy screamed. The pain, it felt like he was being plunged into flaming tar. His skin crawled and ached as the universe tried to wipe him from its surface like a dead bug. Then, just as quickly as it has come the pain vanished. Beastboy floated in the newfound light for several more minutes before he worked up the courage to look upon the being that now stood before him.

It was unbelievable, a being made of pure white fire. Its thin body was literally made of white flames that danced in the nothingness. Its eyes, although kind, were black pools that were as deep as the sky. Whatever it was it, Beastboy got the feeling of power the likes of which he could never understand in his current form. It was more then a being, it was a Power. The thing you only feel in you darkest deepest sleeps. The kind of thing that could never be. It _was _power. And it was holding itself back, this was only a minuscule fraction of its whole. It it were to appear to Beastboy in its full form Beastboy would wink out of existence just from being near it. It would be so real and powerful that it would force the universe to destroy anything around it less then itself.

Beastboy got the feeling he was supposed to speak first. He cleared his throat, with what he wasn't sure. Was there air in this place? But putting that from his mind he tried not to look directly at it and spoke. "Who are you?"

_"I am Neoneisa." _it said in that voice that came from everywhere and reach right inside Beastboy's mind. And along with the voice an understanding filled his head. The being that stood before him had told the truth, it was known as Neoneisa to some, but somehow Beastboy also knew that Neoneisa was more of a description then a name.

Beastboy shuddered a bit from the feeling, but he quickly recovered. Raven could be in trouble, if he must speak to this ... thing to get back to her, then fine.

"But the prophecy, it says you won't be born from an earthly mortal until Trigon comes."

_"You are thinking in only three dimensions, i have access to many more. Meaning i can be everywhere at once, even before my own raising." _

Thinking about that started to make Beastboy's head hurt again, so he stopped and just accepted it. He got the feeling that he could trust this ... being. But then he frowned. Something was bothering him. It felt like he _knew _this being. But that was impossible. This thing was a major power and on top of it all it was majorly creeping him out. No way in hell could Beastboy ever forget it. But still, it was like someone he had met long, long ago and had all but forgotten.

_"You know me very well little changeling." _

"I do?" Asked Beastboy a little confused, wait had it read his mind. Then a thought struck him, or rather re-appeared in his mind. "Am i dead?"

_"No, i grabbed you and pulled you from your body before you could die. The being called Jaden knows this, but the titans as they are called do not."_

"They think I'm dead?"

_"Yes, and the demon child had lost control of her emotions and has once again taken the form of Nightmare."_

Beastboy gaped, Raven lost control. This is bad, very bad. She had told him that if she lost control one too many times the psychos on Azerath that wanted to kill her could find her.

_"It is already too late. By the time i restore you to your body they will have discovered her location."_

"Oh Shit!" screamed Beastboy "God damn it to bloody hell, what the hell are we supposed to do. That joke of a head council guy wanted to lock Raven away... damn it!"

_"Little changeling, please restrain your anger, there is a more pressing danger to the one called Raven."_

This immediately snapped Beastboy out of the cursing tournament he was having with himself. He had a look on his face like he was ready to jump into any danger at a seconds notice, all he needed was a direction. "What is it?"

_"The reason i have called you into limbo is so that i can assist you. The being called Jaden knows i am near, although he does not know my intentions. So once he has succeeded in subduing the Raven he will conjour a means of land travel to see what i will do."_

"Wait," Said Beastboy, his rage flaring. "Am i understanding you weird way of talking right. Jaden will beat Raven into unconsciousness and then take her and run to see what you will do?"

_"Yes, for now. Once he realizes i cannot appear in the physical plane he will take her to his fortress in the sky and there he will begin to torture the Raven savagely. When he is done with her there will be nothing left of either her body or mind." _

"What the hell are you waiting for then? Send me back, i have to stop him." bellowed Beastboy as he struggled in the blackness trying to find a way back on his own.

_"I have brought you here because neither you nor the Raven are meant to stop here, you both have major roles to play in the prophecy." _

"Well then send me back already, i have to stop Jaden!"

_"I will be restoring you to your body momentarily, but some time will have past. The being called Jaden will have already subdued the Raven and will be in the process of retreating to his fortress." _

"Fine, just send me back!" screamed Beastboy as he continues to thrash and contort amidst the empty blackness in an effort to discover a way to claw back to his body.

_"Calm yourself little changeling, there is a grim side to your bravery. Go soon you will but when you get to the Raven you will not be able to escape with her. One of you must go with Jaden to his fortress, and there, whichever of you it may be will be subjected to what will seem like eons of torture the likes of which you cannot even conceive. Tortures designed specifically to use your strengths against you, to dive you insane with the thoughts of the the things that you hold dear. Which ever of you that Jaden works over will have your mind ripped from you. When you are found you will be but a hollow mindless screaming husk. "_

Beastboy listened carefully and felt the pit of his stomach fall. But he knew what he must do. To him there was no other choice.

"How do i take her place?" he asked stiffly without a second thought.

Neoneisa didn't seem the least bit surprised by his response. _"I will assist you in whatever ways i can. Once you are inside your body again i will lend you a portion of my power, and thus you will be on even ground with Jaden for a time. But even though your body is not completely human you still won't be able to contain the power for long, so act quickly young one. When you reach the land traveling device Jaden has created you may stop it in any way possible without worry of injuring the Raven. The amount of influence i will have over the physical world will not be great, but i can promise you that no matter how brutally you stop the craft the Raven will be completely unharmed."_

"I understand." said Beastboy, he did have some questions about what Neoneisa had said about him not being entirely human. But he pushed them from his mind. Raven needed him right now, he could pursue the questions of his origins later.

_"One final thing little Changeling."_ said Neoneisa, then it reached forward with a single flaming hand and touched Beastboy in the center of his chest. For a moment there was a weird itchy feeling all over his body, then Beastboy felt nothing again. Looking down he saw that on each of his wrists a single crystal jewel, about the size of a penny, had appeared.

"What did you do?" Asked Beastboy looking at the strange new things that had just appeared on his body like they belonged there.

_"You do not know it, but you are a son of the race that call themselves the Kilwrathy. In another dimension, Trigon's home dimension. They were the first race to oppose him. And ever since then they have been the protectors of all of the dimensions, fighting evil on every front they can find. You are one of them, but your body has been in a constant war with itself since it was infected with a virus all those years ago." _

_"When the virus first came into contact with your Kilwrathy DNA it mutated from a killing virus to a conversion virus. What you have been trying to kill ... to cure, is your own non-human DNA. But i have just accelerated it to completion, you are now a pure blood Kilwrathy. Those organic crystals on your wrists are the Kilwrathy's greatest weapons. They are called Sjintock's, and they will allow you to absorb and perfectly control all kinds of energies, such as the shape shifting abilities all Kilwrathy are born with." _

_"I have now given you all of the preparation i can, close your eyes and when you open them again you will be back in your own body. Hurry and save the Raven, Mark. she needs your help." _

With little effort Neoneisa lowered Beastboy's soul form back into his body. Up in it's endless expanse of blackness the Power watched the events continue to unfold, it was strange, even for a Power to watch this. It remembered that time, all those billions of years ago when it had been _it_ down on the surface of that small planet. It had no idea of the future that was in store for it when it was still in the form of a mortal.

It waved its fiery hand lazily, infusing the now standing body of the small Changeling with a tiny fraction of its power. The small green body convulsed and fought to contain the new addition to itself, but immediately the organic crystals on his wrists did their job and the energy was channeled properly.

As the power inside the small Kilwrathy stabilize, the large clock tower behind him stopped at exactly one thirty eight. Neoneisa smiled a bit, its flaming face pulled back. Today was going to be interesting, and tragic.

-

Cyborg gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles had turned white, his faced was set and hard. There were no words for the pain he was feeling right now. His best friend had just been killed right in front of him. He had checked Beastboy's life signs himself, running through the lashing black tentacles and beams of energy that brought old and new building alike to there knees. He crashed to a stop at the foot of the thing that had once been Raven and worked over his fallen friend. Poor little Beastboy, his chest had a great black burn on it. Whatever the mage had done had melted his costume to his flesh. His eyes had been glassy and sightless. Cyborg had barely been able to hold himself together while he had deployed the bio-scanner in his arm. But even before the toneless screech told him his friend was dead he knew. This was just a body, the friend he had known all those years was not in here.

He had been murdered by Jaden.

As he had tried to pull himself up Cyborg saw the blow that finished Raven. It was a mighty blast. He knew nothing of magic, but even he could tell that no regular man could create that kind of power. Jaden _really_ was a demi-god. For many moments after the explosion fell silent Cyborg thought he had been rendered blind simply by being to close to the blast. But then the world came back into focus and he saw the destruction.

It looked like the remains of a war-torn third world country. Only moments before the street had been lined with gleaming towers of glass and concrete. But now it was a flat and dead waste land. The roads were covered in broken glass and shattered bricks. Great steel beams that had once steadied the skyscraper against the power of the wind were scattered about, some were even embedded in ground, raising up like a steel forest of death.

He watched Jaden, standing immaculate in a perfect circle of untouched land. Behind him, still standing in a neat row were his mages, just as unscathed, and at his feet the small form of Raven lay. She had been badly hurt, but the magic's that Jaden had used did not destroy the body. Unknown to everyone around him Jaden had used a curse that he himself had created years ago. It was a powerful weapon that turned the magic inside any being against them, forced their own hard earned power back against their masters. He liked to use this spell, in his opinion it had a streak of poetic justice in it.

All those armies and sorcerers that worked so hard all of their lives just to gain a level of power they thought might stand a chance against Jaden or his Father, and then where they came to that crucial moment, the apex of all of their planning and scheming. He would kill them with their own powers. Arrogant pathetic bastards, if they had just allied with his Father they would needn't have died or wasted their lives in hopeless quests. But some people just couldn't see reason, even if it was staring then in the face. At his feet the blood traitor stirred. Yes he had not killed her yet, sure he knew some of the blackest magics ever conceived and even a few that had been erased from reality simply because they were to powerful and evil. He could have done terrible and horrid to her, but now was not the time, now he had to find out what that being wanted.

He knew that there was a being of great power watching every move that was being played. But what Jaden needed to know was who's side it was on. So with a wave of his hand he created a chariot much like one would see in the Colosseum in the time of the gladiators, except this one was different in many ways. Firstly it was enlarged so that Jaden, the three mages could all stand comfortably with more then enough room for the unconscious body of Raven to lay at their feet. The second difference was that instead of normal horses pulling the chariot, four skeletal monstrosities stood at the head of the carriage. Each was easily eight feet from ground to shoulder bone, coloured the pale cream of exposed bone, and with eyes as yellow as the setting sun they sent chills down the spins of whoever dared look upon them. With a snort one of the horses shot green flames out of its nostrils and pawed the ground, eager to get moving.

With a wave Jaden signaled his followers, and they gathered up Raven and followed Jaden into the back of the chariot, after they placed Raven's body at Jaden's feet they took up positions on the back edge of the enormous chariot. Once their task was done Jaden spurned the horses into a slow gallop. He had time to waste, if the friends of the Blood Traitor wanted to entertain them by attempting a rescue, who was he to deny his mages the pleasure of killing them. They had done a good job, they deserved a little fun.

-

Cyborg cranked the steering wheel hard as his car careened around another corner, again the street in front of him was devoid of any traffic. It was strange, for the past few minutes they had been trying to catch up to Jaden with no luck. Sure Cyborg didn't expect to find the murderer so fast, but they had left the devastation of their battle several miles back, he had expected to be putting his driving skills to the test as he swerved in and out of traffic. But the streets were empty, not even a bike courier.

"Take this left," instructed Robin as he poured over the satellite tracking system build into the glove compartment. He had always put his all into his work, but now he was almost climbing into the little compartment to avoid thinking about how they had left Beastboy lying on the ground back there. They hadn't wanted to leave him, but Jaden was getting away with Raven and they didn't have a choice. It was either tend to the dead body of Beastboy or chase after the still breathing Raven. Robin was trying desperately to convince himself that this is what Beastboy would have wanted.

In the back seat Starfire was hugging her knees to her chest as she tried to bite back the tears with Jinx trying to calm her even though she herself was just as much of a wreak. Starfire wanted to get her hands on Jaden, wanted to hurt him. Her race was a very emotional one, the girl the earth had always seen was her cheerful side, happy, lovable, kind. But they were about to see her anger, they were about to see her rage break over a covering man. Normally she would have been in the air trying to track down Jaden from there. But the shock and pain of seeing Beastboy die had robbed her of the happy thoughts that she needed to fly. But those same emotions would supercharge her starbolts to a fearsome level.

"Were getting close he should be around the next right," Robin said as he stared hard at the monitor. As they pulled the next turn at forty over the speed limit Cyborg noticed something. There _was _traffic, but they were being held back. The T-Car flashed past a turn-on that was backed up as far as the eye could see. Cyborg frowned, there were dozens of people out of their cars and staring at the obstruction in awe.

There were horizontal bars of white fire stacked twenty feet in the air and suspended by no visible means, completely blocking the path of all traffic in and out of the street. Then it was gone as they sped past.

"Robin..." Cyborg started.

"I saw it."

"What was it?" Cyborg asked, but just as Robin was going to answer Cy held up a single metal hand for silence. He could hear something over the wail of the T-Cars engine. It was a rhythmic thumping that kept a constant pace. A helicopter? No, several. And, there was something else. Sirens? Yes police car sirens coming from just a little ways up ahead. As Cyborg tore down the street his eyes spied a speck far ahead, and for a moment the sirens were unimportant.

"Jaden," Growled Cyborg as he pressed the gas pedal right to the floor. He never even noticed the sirens and chopper blades getting closer and louder, never noticed the red and blue flashing lights coming from the mouth of a side street a few blocks ahead. But he did notice the helmeted motorcyclist come tearing around the corner, smoke and fire belching from his machine making it look like he was astride a raging black dragon. He was clad in a torn black and purple cloths with a deeply tinted helmet covering his face. Strangely, a dancing white light flickered from inside his helmet, almost like there was a flame just inside the visor.

And then what seemed like the entire police force of Jump city came screaming out of the side street the rider had just exited. Black and white cars with blindingly bright flashing lights, white unmarked cars, even a white van that might have been used for stake outs. In total it must have been nearly sixty cars, and they all fell into clumsy positions around the T-Car that had only moments ago been frantically swerving, trying not to be hit by any of the steel obstacles. . The Police hadn't expected to find another car speeding in the same direction, but they quickly recognized the car and realized who was in it. Relief spread among the cops, they might actually be able to stop this maniac now.

And then the choppers reappeared over head. News choppers from almost every station flew like mad kamikazes as they tried to get better angles of the psycho motorcyclist. Some of the poorer stations only had the basic chopper so the camera men had to try to get a steady shot from the windows, others implemented high tech camera mounted on the crafts itself. But then there were the blue police choppers.

There were only two police choppers, but both were flying fast at the head of the pack, and like a few of the news choppers they each had a man hanging out of an open door attached to the craft by a few fabric straps. But the things the two highly trained men were holding were not cameras.

In the T-Car the Titans were twisting in their seats trying to figure out what the hell was going on. One moment they were trying to catch up to Jaden, and then the next they were playing 'dodge the roaring pieces of steel'. Then a man, presumably one of the men in the police shoppers over head, began to yell into a megaphone.

**"This is your last chance son, we have been authorized to use lethal force!" **The man waited for a minute, but the biker just twisted the throttle harder.** "Son, don't throw your life away, we can work this out!" **But there was still no response except that the biker went faster.

"I'm sorry," the man in the said a little softer. Then for a long moment there was only the sound of motors being driven into the red lines.

"What does he mean he's sorry?" asked Starfire. But before anyone could answer a shot rang out from on of the sniper rifles. All eyes were on the biker as his helmet split from the impact of the bullet. It was a one in a million shot, the bullet cracked the helmet but was deflected enough to miss the bikers green head.

_"Beastboy!"_ was cried out in unison form inside the T-Car. Cyborg scrambled for the radio as the others were to shocked by the reappearance of their thought to be dead team mate. Cyborgs heart was beating hard into his throat. The first shot had missed, they would try again. He had to stop it.

"This is Victor Stone, JLA confirmation number 5632-A. The man you are firing upon is a friendly. Cease fire, repeat cease fire!"

But the second sniper didn't her him over the sound of his rifle firing. The second shot buried itself deep in Beastboy's left shoulder, the force shoving him forward on his seat. This time he turned around and stared at the offending chopper. The titans gasped and the police gawked. Great white fire completely consumed his eyes, giving him a devilish look. But a second later he returned his gaze to the road, turning his back on the army of cars and men bent on killing him in hopes of protecting the city.

"Dammit, stop shooting he's one of us!" Cyborg screamed into the radio

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**_PLEASE READ & REVIEW_**

**EternalLoss**


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